Florence and the Spirit of the Renaissance (6/39)

Florence and the Spirit of the Renaissance (6/39)

Florence is regarded as the focal point, the centre where the revolutionary ideas of the Renaissance with its enthusiasm for the art of Antiquity were developed.

The city on the Arno was at this time one of Europe's foremost trading metropoles. Here the currents of culture and politics converged. In Florence, liberal and open-minded as it was, there emerged a broad class of industrious citizens who had made their fortunes in trade. Suddenly they were able to afford education - a privilege hitherto the preserve of a few aristocrats and priests. They studied and absorbed the thoughts of the writers of Antiquity, developed them further, thus creating the foundations for a completely new attitude to human existence.

Als Brennpunkt der Entwicklung der umwälzenden Ideen der Renaissance und deren Begeisterung für die Kunst der Antike gilt Florenz.

Die Stadt am Arno war zu dieser Zeit eine der wichtigsten Handelsmetropolen Europas. Dort liefen die kulturellen und politischen Fäden zusammen. Im weltoffenen Florenz gab es eine breite Schicht geschäftiger Bürger, die durch den Handel zu Geld gekommen waren. Sie konnten sich plötzlich Bildung leisten - ein Privileg, das bislang wenigen Adeligen und Geistlichen vorbehalten gewesen war. Wie ein Schwamm sogen sie die Gedanken der antiken Schriftsteller auf, entwickelten sie fort und schufen so die Grundlage für eine völlig neue Einstellung zum Menschsein.

This series portrays landscapes, metropoles, sacred sites and monuments, all of which have made a unique contribution to the cultural heritage of mankind. Each episode breathes life into civilizations which thrived in the past ten thousand years, some of them then vanishing without a trace into the shadows of history. The films describe epochs whose legacy lingers in the perceptions and ideas of our own age, and cult sites which have managed to preserve their religious and cultural power up to the present day.