Modena

The historic centre of Modena preserved its original aspect throughout the 19th century and beyond. Within this area marked by the three concentric perimeters of the oldest medieval and 14th-century walls and the Renaissance fortifications, we find all the city’s main religious and lay buildings, which attest to the austere elegance of one of the many lost small capitals of Italy. Surrounding the Romanesque centre of its cathedral (a masterpiece dating back to the period of the medieval city-republics), the city of the Ghirlandina tower and Ducal Palace, of Wiligelmo and Lanfranco, of the last of the Estense family and of the red Ferrari, is described and illustrated here in its more famous and lesser-known gems.