Siena Cathedral to unveil inlaid marble mosaic floors this summer

Siena Duomo uncovers magnificent marble floors. Each year the Italian city of Siena unveils the extraordinary inlaid marble mosaic floors of the city's cathedral as part of an eagerly-awaited annual event. The magnificent marble floor, covered with masonite sheeting for the rest of the year, can be visited in 2026 from 27 June to 31 July and again from 18 August to 15 November, according to the Opera Duomo Siena website. Visitors, who are invited to book online, will be able to admire the inlaid floor whose 56 panels were created between the 14th and 16th centuries. Photo credit: Anna Pakutina / Shutterstock.com.   The interlocking "marble carpet" floor was described by 16th-century artist and art historian Giorgio Vasari as "the most beautiful, largest and most magnificent floor that ever was made." Artists designed the panels using two technical methods: graffito, which involves incising white marble and filling the lines with black stucco, and marble mosaic inlay, which utilises fitted pieces of coloured marble. For information about how to see the floor, which contains allegories, virtues and scenes from the Old Testament, see the Duomo di Siena website. Photo credit: Roman Babakin / Shutterstock.com.