“Remember to enter with devotion into this devout house of worship of the Virgin”
These words carved into the pavement of the cathedral, at the entrance to the central nave, are addressed to anyone entering this splendid cathedral. Crossing its threshold is not simply a physical passage but the beginning of a spiritual journey. The place you are entering, more than being a remarkable setting for art, is first and foremost a dwelling place (domus), the house of God and His people, the Church, who here live the fundamental moments of their history.
Even before you came in, the façade, with its profusion of marble, announced that you were approaching a unique space, in which the predictions of the ancient prophets carved on the scrolls displayed by the beautiful statues by Giovanni Pisano are fulfilled.
Now you have entered the church, an edifice built to be the image of a reality made up of flesh and spirit, the Church-community: a reality of people whose lives have been changed forever by the One who died to save them from evil: Jesus Christ.
In here is venerated the Blessed Virgin Mary, the first woman to experience the effects of salvation: Immaculate and without sin, Assumed into Heaven to share the glorious destiny of Her Son, the Virgin is the image par excellence of the Church, the Mother to whom the faithful have always turned to obtain grace from God, just as the Sienese still do today in the Chapel of Our Lady of Votive Offerings.
As soon as you are in the cathedral, your eye cannot help being caught by the splendid round stained-glass window set at the top of the apse, showing the Assumption of Our Lady and indicating the goal of every person’s journey: the Kingdom of Heaven. There was a time when the eye was then immediately captured by the gold background of the painting on the high altar, known as the Maestà, presenting the Virgin enthroned in majesty and serving in turn as a throne for her Child, with all around them the heavenly court of angels and Saints.
To reach the goal, however, it is necessary to cover the entire distance of the human journey, illustrated in the remarkable inlaid marble pavement. Starting from the religious sense innate in each person which gave rise to the ancient knowledge represented by the philosopher Hermes Trismegistus and the Sibyls, we come to episodes from the Old Testament, the first revelation of God, then finally reach the figures who most anticipated Christ: the prophet Elijah, who rose to heaven in a fiery chariot, King David, and Abraham about to sacrifice his son Isaac.
To the left of the chancel is the superb pulpit, which recounts the life of Christ up to his Death and Resurrection and the Last Judgment. What is announced from the pulpit with the proclamation of the Gospel becomes current reality on the altar, where the Church, repeating Christ’s words at the Last Supper, relives the event of salvation in the here and now of all time. Thus, by taking part in the Holy Mass, to every faithful is opened the door of Heaven, where Mary awaits, the Virgin Mary admired with wonder in the sculptures and paintings.
Behind the altar, on the left, is the object from which the word cathedral is derived: the cathedra, the bishop’s seat, from which the successor to the apostles guides and protects in the Catholic faith the people entrusted to him.