Baptistery Cathedral Visit

This past week I visited the Baptistery of San Giovanni in Piazza Duomo. My favorite part of the Baptistery was the ceiling or the dome. It was incredible how intricately it was designed and I can only imagine how difficult that was to create so long ago. I learned that the ceiling is made of mosaic tiles that depict passages from the Bible and the lives of Jesus and St. John the Baptist. Another interesting fact I learned while talking to some people in the Baptistery was that parts of the floor represent astronomical aspects. There is a hole at the top of the dome which allows the sun to shine through and as the sun moves, it changes where the light is shining in the Baptistery. I found this to be an amazing fact considering the Baptistery was built in the 1000s. We had already visited the Golden doors for class, but I still found them gorgeous on this trip. I was surprised by how many entrances there are to the Baptistery and how they all have meaning because of the direction they are facing. On the inside, there are also statues near each door, like the three men above the northern doors. The colors on the inside of the Baptistery were the same as the outside which I found interesting because it seems like usually the inside of cathedrals and religious buildings are more colorful than the outside. Overall, I enjoyed my visit to the Baptistery, mostly because of the astrological meaning behind the floor and because of the intricacy of the ceiling mosaic.