The first episcopal church of Florence was the ancient basilica of S. Lorenzo , consecrated by S. Ambrogio di Milano in 394. The main church and seat of the cathedral of the city of Florence was then the basilica of S. Reparata martire, which, as can also be deduced from recent excavations, was built in the fifth or sixth century and , in the course of the following, enlarged and restored several times. When it was decreed the total and more extensive reconstruction, Cardinal Valeriano, legate of Boniface VIII, solemnly laid the first stone of a new basilica on the feast of the Nativity of the Madonna in 1296. In 1412 the magnificent temple now erected on the remains of the previous one, the title of S. Maria del Fiore was confirmed. Awarded by Martin V in 1420 the privileges of a metropolitan church, on 25 March 1436 it was consecrated by PP Eugenio IV. When the mosaic decoration of the Baptistery was almost complete - in the last decades of the 200th century - the Municipality decided to build a new cathedral. The ancient one, dedicated to Santa Reparata, "collapsed due to the extreme age", as a document of the time specifies. In the vicinity of the new "beautiful San Giovanni", Santa Reparata then appeared "very large in shape", as a fourteenth-century writer, Giovanni Villani, says. Furthermore, in this period of intense demographic growth, the old cathedral seemed "small compared to such a city" according to Villani. Thus was born the project of a huge church, which would have surpassed the cathedrals of the rival Tuscan cities, Pisa and Siena, both in size and in the richness of the external decoration "all of marble and carved figures" (reliefs and sculptures), as Villani always says. .

In the manner of the cathedrals of Gothic Europe in general, the new Cathedral was dedicated to the Madonna, with the title "Santa Maria del Fiore", a chivalrous tribute to the role of the Virgin in the mysterious plan of God. The "flower", according to a document of first '400, it would be Christ, sprouted on the stem (Mary) that rises from the root of the family of David.

Hypothetical view of the ancient Florentine Cathedral of Santa Reparata

In the manner of the cathedrals of Gothic Europe in general, the new Cathedral was dedicated to the Madonna, with the title "Santa Maria del Fiore", a chivalrous tribute to the role of the Virgin in the mysterious plan of God. The "flower", according to a document of first '400, it would be Christ, sprouted on the stem (Mary) that rises from the root of the family of David.

S. Maria del Fiore as it appears in the XNUMXth century “Codice Rustici”
(Archiepiscopal Seminary of Cestello - Florence)

The Cathedral you visit today is the result of 170 years of work. The first stone of the façade was placed on 8 September 1296, based on a project by Arnolfo di Cambio who, simultaneously, directed the construction of Santa Croce and the Palazzo della Signoria. The Arnolfian project, however, underwent numerous changes, the most evident of which are visible on the external sides of the building, to the north and south, where the first four windows are lower, narrower and closer than those towards the east, which they correspond, however, to the extension made by Francesco Talenti, master builder starting from the mid-300th century. The radial chapels to the east were completed in the early 400s and the gigantic dome, designed by Filippo Brunelleschi, was built in just 16 years, from 1418 to 1434, "structura si grande, rising above and skies, wide to cover all with its shadow and Tuscan peoples ”, as Leon Battista Alberti wrote at the time. The lantern, designed by Brunelleschi, was made after the artist's death (1446) and the gilded copper ball with the cross, containing sacred relics, the work of Andrea del Verrocchio, was placed in 1466.

The Duomo now

The last component of Santa Maria del Fiore to be built was the façade, built to a design by Emilio De Fabris between 1871 and 1887, in a neo-Gothic style that recalls the "true" Gothic of the bell tower and of the portals on the sides of the Duomo. This facade, like Arnolf's one, honors the Mother of Christ: the figure above the central door, Mary enthroned holding a flowery scepter (by Tito Sarrocchi), dominates all the rest. But the nineteenth-century program has above all a historical and national character; the mosaics, designed by Niccolò Barabino, represent: above the central door, Christ enthroned between Mary and St. John the Baptist, with Florentine saints; on the right (towards the south, that is), Florentine artisans, merchants and humanists who pay homage to the Faith; and on the left (to the north), La Carità among the founders of the Florentine pious works.

Pope Eugene IV, on 25 March 1436, consecrates the Cathedral of S. Maria del Fiore. (Miniature from a liturgical code preserved in the Laurentian library)