Modena Scavenger Hunt and Self-Guided Tour

The route: ducal garden, Via Emilia, duomo and the Franciscans' church

10 stops · about 23 min walking · start: Giardino Ducale Estense · finish: Church of San Francesco

The hunt starts in the Giardino Ducale Estense and leads past the Teatro Comunale Pavarotti-Freni to the Palazzo Ducale and Piazza Roma. You continue to Piazza Mazzini by the synagogue, then to the Ghirlandina, the cathedral and Piazza Grande, visit the Mercato Albinelli and finish at the Church of San Francesco. Every answer is found on a façade, a fountain or a square, so neither the duomo nor the market asks you for a ticket, and if you arrive by the station side of town or simply fancy Piazza Grande first, the app reshuffles the route around your chosen starting point.

Open the route map ↗

1. 

   1Giardino Ducale EstenseStart

   The Este dukes laid out this garden beside their palace after moving their court from Ferrara to Modena in 1598, and it later became a public park. Its 17th-century pavilion, the Palazzina dei Giardini, is now used for exhibitions, and the city's botanical garden lies at its edge.

2. 

   2Teatro Comunale Pavarotti-Freni

   Modena's opera house opened in 1841 on Corso Canalgrande, behind a neoclassical façade. It is named after two of the city's most famous singers, Luciano Pavarotti and Mirella Freni, both born in Modena in 1935, who as babies are said to have shared the same wet nurse.

3. 

   3Palazzo Ducale

   Duke Francesco I d'Este began this vast Baroque palace in 1634 on the site of the old castle, and it remained the seat of the Este court until the unification of Italy. Today it houses the Military Academy, so cadets in uniform are a familiar sight in front of its long façade.

4. 

   4Piazza Roma

   This wide square opens in front of the Palazzo Ducale and is now largely free of traffic. Its monument honours Ciro Menotti, the patriot who led an uprising against Duke Francesco IV and was executed in 1831, one of the early heroes of Italian unification.

5. 

   5Piazza Mazzini

   This square was created in the early 20th century by demolishing part of the old Jewish ghetto, opening a space beside the Via Emilia. On one side stands the synagogue, built in the 1870s, and the square is named after Giuseppe Mazzini, one of the leaders of Italian unification.

6. 

   6Ghirlandina

   Modena's bell tower rises about 86 metres beside the cathedral; begun at the end of the 11th century, it received its Gothic spire in the early 14th century. A copy of the wooden bucket that Modena's soldiers carried off from Bologna in 1325 is kept here, the subject of the mock-heroic poem La secchia rapita.

   Read the full story →

7. 

   7Modena Cathedral

   Begun in 1099 by the architect Lanfranco and consecrated in 1184, the cathedral is one of the major Romanesque churches in Europe and a UNESCO World Heritage Site together with the Ghirlandina and Piazza Grande. On the façade, reliefs by the sculptor Wiligelmo tell the story of Genesis, and the Porta della Pescheria shows one of the earliest known scenes from the legend of King Arthur.

8. 

   8Piazza Grande

   Modena's main square lies between the cathedral and the Palazzo Comunale, the town hall. Look for the Preda Ringadora, a large stone slab once used as a speakers' platform and for the public shaming of debtors, and for the Bonissima, a medieval female statue on the corner of the town hall.

9. 

   9Mercato Albinelli

   Modena's covered food market opened in 1931 in a hall of iron and glass just a few steps from Piazza Grande. In the middle stands a fountain with the statue of a girl carrying a basket of fruit, and the stalls are full of local produce such as Parmigiano Reggiano and balsamic vinegar.

10. 

    10Church of San FrancescoFinish

    This Gothic brick church was begun in the 13th century for the Franciscan friars and was heavily restored in the 19th century. Inside is a dramatic terracotta group of the Deposition from the Cross by the 16th-century Modenese sculptor Antonio Begarelli.