Past Italia: Arezzo Cathedral

The Cathedral of Saints Peter and Donatus in Arezzo, Tuscany, boasts a long history and some eye-catching architecture

Arezzo Cathedral, Tuscany, Italy
Arezzo Cathedral (iStock)

La Cattedrale dei Santi Pietro e Donato is the city cathedral of Arezzo, Tuscany. The façade is a 20th-century reconstruction, and the clock tower was added then too, but the rest of the church was built between the 13th and 16th centuries, on the site of an earlier church, and quite probably on the site of a place of pagan worship much older than that. In this, it is a fine example of Christian architecture being imposed on that of earlier religions, but its real treasures are within, even if the relics of Saint Donatus are no longer kept here.