Duomo di Milano: “What a wonder it is! So grand, so solemn, so vast!”

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Continuing with my series of photographs (finally!) from the most epic European dad-daughter trip of (probably?) our lifetime – 29 days from December 2023 to January 2024 via planes, trains and automobiles.

Having arrived in Milan from Vienna (on Christmas Day, no less!), we paid a visit to the city’s most polarizing attraction, the Duomo di Milano (Milan Cathedral). It is the largest church in the Italian Republic — the larger St. Peter’s Basilica is in the State of Vatican City, a sovereign state — and one of largest in the world.

Duomo di Milano

Construction work on the Duomo of Milan probably began in 1386 when the style of Gothic cathedrals had reached its peak. Though originally started in terracotta stone, once the grandeur of the project was realized, Condoglian marble from Lake Maggiore was chosen. The entire building is made up of this pink-hued white marble.

To bring it from the quarries of Candoglia, canals were dug leading to the construction site, evidence of which is still visible along the famous navigli, a system of interconnected canals in and around Milan left over from the network built in southern Milan specifically for that purpose.

In 1389, a French chief engineer, Nicolas de Bonaventure, was appointed, adding to the church a very refined style of Gothic Architecture which appeared in France during that time. In 1488, both Leonardo da Vinci and Donato Bramante created models in a competition to design the central cupola. In in 1571, Italian architect Pellegrino Pellegrini was brought in as chief engineer.

In 1774 the Duomo’s highest spire of the Duomo was topped with a 13.65-foot statue of the Virgin Mary, known as the Madonnina. At 365-feet tall, the Duomo was the highest building in Milan, creating a sort of unwritten rule that no building could exceed the Madonnina in height.

The Madonnina remained the highest point in Milan until the 1960s when the Pirelli skyscraper was constructed in the northern part of the city. To make up for this, a copy of the statue was made to put atop the new 417-foot modern tower, and has since become a tradition that has continued with all new construction of buildings that exceed the Madonnina in height.

The Duomo’s main façade went under renovation from 2003 to early 2009. The effects of pollution on the 14th-century building entail regular maintenance, and recent austerity cuts to Italy’s cultural budget have left less money for the upkeep of cultural institutions like the Duomo.

So, in November 2012, officials announced a campaign to raise funds for the cathedral’s preservation by asking patrons to adopt the building’s spires. Donors who contribute €100,000 or more will have a plaque with their name engraved on it placed on the spire.

The roof is open to tourists (for a fee), which allows many a close-up view of some spectacular sculpture that would otherwise be unappreciated. The roof of the cathedral is renowned for the forest of openwork pinnacles and spires, set upon delicate flying buttresses.

There are 3,400 statues, 135 gargoyles and 700 figures that decorate Milan Duomo. Moreover, the long succession of architects and engineers involved with the cathedral’s construction (Francesco Brambilla, Francesco Maria Richini, Fabio Mangone, Carlo Buzzi, Filippo Juvarra, Luigi Vanvitelli, and others) makes it impossible to trace a certain authorship of the project.

The cathedral took nearly six centuries to complete, with the final details completed in 1965. Therefore, the public reaction to its design has ranged from disgust to admiration. English writer and historian John Ruskin wrote that the cathedral steals “from every style in the world: and every style spoiled.” Ruskin went on to use “barbarous and angular” in his scathing commentary on the cavernous cathedral. What it is, to me at least, is a majestic cathedral well worth a visit should you find yourself in Milan.