Work began on the world’s largest brick dome on 7 August 1420.
Florence on Thursday marks the anniversary of construction work starting on the cupola of the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore, a landmark that has dominated the city’s skyline for six centuries.
Florentine architect, engineer and goldsmith Filippo Brunelleschi – considered a founding father of Renaissance architecture – was 41 when he came up with the dome’s ingenious design in 1418.
Building work began on 7 August 1420 and the dome was finally completed 16 years later.
The cupola remains the world’s largest brick dome ever built, with an outer diameter of 54.8 metres and an inner one of 45.5 metres.
The genius behind Brunelleschi’s design is that the dome is in fact two concentric domes: an outer dome conceals the inner one.
Brunelleschi’s landmark dome in Florence
The pointed dome, stronger than the semi-circular one; was built using light brick; and by wrapping the walls with tension rings of stone, iron, and wood, similar to hoops on a barrel, preventing it from cracking or collapsing.
For the duration of the cupola’s construction, Brunelleschi was forced to work alongside his arch rival Lorenzo Ghiberti – a strained relationship to say the least – two decades after Ghiberti had beaten him to win the designs for the new bronze doors of Florence’s Baptistery.
The finished cathedral, whose construction began in 1296, was consecrated finally by Pope Eugenius IV on 25 March 1436, in what was a triumph for Brunelleschi, Florence and the world.
Ten years later Brunelleschi was awarded the ultimate honour when his body was buried in the crypt of the Florence Cathedral, under the dome whose design and construction he had overseen brick by brick.
