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Photograph © Mike Lastort
Photograph © Mike Lastort
Photograph © Mike Lastort
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Official name: Cattedrale di Santa Maria del Fiore
Also known as: Cathedral of Holy Mary of the Flower
Built:
1296- 1421
Designed by: Arnolfo di Cambio, Andrea Pisano, Francesco Talenti, and Giovanni de Lapo Ghini
Type: Holy Place
Location: Piazze del Duomo
City: Florence
State: Tuscany
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T
his cathedral is as much a part of the city as the Palazzo Vecchio, and with good reason. It was designed to be the religious counterweight to the secular Palazzo. But the Palazzo's construction was borne out of pride, so its backers had to see it completed. The Cathedral came from a higher calling, and thus it was OK to build on a monumental scale that allowed construction to last longer than three of its four architects. In fact, the original design outstripped the available engineering of the day. The building had a huge open space that could not be bridged by traditional methods. The area was 42-meters wide, and 82-meters high, making it too tall and too wide for traditional ribbing or scaffolding. It wasn't until 1418 that Filippo Brunellshi came up with a solution in a contest held by the Woolworker's Guild. Together, he and Ghiberti came up with a design that would be self-supporting during construction. They put together two octagonal overlapping domes that would be held together by a tambour. Stone walls at the base would provide a strong foundation while the upper masonry could climb toward the heavens supported by a series of ribs. The dome is finished with a huge lantern modeled after Vitruvius' design for a weather tower. In spite of its 13th century heritage, it wasn't until 600 years later that the cathedral could really be called complete. All ideas from a contest held in 1859 were rejected. The same thing happened in 1865. But the 1867 contest found a winner -- the entry from Emilio De Fabris and Luigi Del Moro. Their execution complements the adjacent belltower and helped the cathedral finally find a place in the city of Florence.
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