Battistero
Battisterio (Battistero di San Giovanni ) - The Baptistry. Built in the Florentine Romanesque style between 1059 and 1128.
Historic Centre of Florence. UNESCO World Heritage site.
"Opposite the Bigallo is the Battistero, or church of San Giovanni Battista, originally (down to 1128) the cathedral of Florence, an admirable octagonal structure with an octagonal cupola, rising in well-proportioned stories, defined by pilasters and embellished with rich variegated marble ornamentation and handsome cornices. The building, which was extolled by Dante ('mio bel San Giovanni', Inf. xix. 17), was probably founded in the 7th or 8th cent., but was remodelled about 1200, when the previous vestibule was replaced by the present choir-apse. The pillars on the exterior angles were added by Arnolfo di Cambio in 1293. All children born in Florence are baptized here. — The three celebrated Bronze Doors were added in the 14th and 15th centuries".--Baedeker 1906.
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Italy became a nation-state in 1861 when the city-states of the peninsula, along with Sardinia and Sicily, were united under King Victor EMMANUEL II. An era of parliamentary government came to a close in the early 1920s when Benito MUSSOLINI establis... ... read more 
