Milan Cathedral (Part One).

Text, Illustrations and Captions taken from Wikipedia, the free encyclopaedia,
unless stated otherwise.

English: Milan Cathedral.

Italiano: Milano - Duomo.

Photo: February 2009.

Source: Own work.

Author: MarkusMark.

(Wikimedia Commons)

Milan Cathedral (Italian: Duomo di Milano; Lombard: Domm de Milan) is the Cathedral Church of Milan, Italy. Dedicated to Santa Maria Nascente (Saint Mary Nascent), it is the seat of the Archbishop of Milan, currently Cardinal Angelo Scola.

The Gothic Cathedral took nearly six centuries to complete. It is the fifth largest Cathedral in the world and the largest in the Italian state territory.

Milan's layout, with streets either radiating from the Duomo or circling it, reveals that the Duomo occupies what was the most central site in Roman Mediolanum, that of the public Basilica facing the Forum. Saint Ambrose's 'New Basilica' was built on this site at the beginning of the 5th-Century, with an adjoining Basilica added in 836 A.D. The old Baptistery (Battistero Paleocristiano, constructed in 335 A.D.) still can be visited under Milan Cathedral. It is one of the oldest Christian buildings in Europe. When a fire damaged the Cathedral and Basilica in 1075, they were later rebuilt as the Duomo.

English: Inside the Duomo (Cathedral) in Milan.

Italiano: Interno del Duomo di Milano.

Photo: December 2005.

Source: Own work.

Author: Paolo da Reggio.

(Wikimedia Commons)

In 1386, Archbishop Antonio da Saluzzo began construction of the Cathedral. Start of the construction coincided with the accession to power in Milan of the Archbishop's cousin, Gian Galeazzo Visconti, and was meant as a reward to the noble and working classes, who had suffered under his tyrannical Visconti predecessor, Barnabò. Before actual work began, three main buildings were demolished, the palace of the Archbishop, the Ordinari Palace and the Baptistry of Saint Stephen at the Spring, while the old Church of Santa Maria Maggiore was exploited as a stone quarry.

Enthusiasm for the immense new building soon spread among the population, and the shrewd Gian Galeazzo, together with his cousin, the Archbishop, collected large donations for the work-in-progress. The construction programme was strictly regulated under the "Fabbrica del Duomo", which had 300 employees led by First Chief Engineer, Simone da Orsenigo. Orsenigo initially planned to build the Cathedral from brick in Lombard Gothic style.

Visconti had ambitions to follow the newest trends in European architecture. In 1389, a French Chief Engineer, Nicolas de Bonaventure, was appointed, adding to the Church its Rayonnant Gothic, a French style not typical for Italy. He decided that the brick structure should be panelled with marble. Galeazzo gave the Fabbrica del Duomo exclusive use of the marble from the Candoglia quarry and exempted it from taxes. 

English: The Duomo (Cathedral) in Milan.

Italiano: Il Duomo di Milano.

Photo: 31 December 2005.

Source: Own work.

Author: Mikko Virtaperko.

(Wikimedia Commons)

Ten years later, another French architect, Jean Mignot, was called from Paris to judge and improve upon the work done, as the masons needed new technical aid to lift stones to an unprecedented height. Mignot declared all the work done up till then as in pericolo di ruina ("peril of ruin"), as it had been done sine scienzia ("without science"). 

In the following years, Mignot's forecasts proved untrue, but, anyway, they spurred Galeazzo's engineers to improve their instruments and techniques. Work proceeded quickly, and at the death of Gian Galeazzo in 1402, almost half the Cathedral was complete. Construction, however, stalled almost totally until 1480, for lack of money and ideas. The most notable works of this period were the tombs of Marco Carelli and Pope Martin V (1424) and the windows of the Apse (1470s), of which, those extant portray Saint John the Evangelist, by Cristoforo de' Mottis, and Saint Eligius and Saint John of Damascus, both by Niccolò da Varallo. In 1452, under Francesco Sforza, the Nave and the Aisles were completed, up to the Sixth Bay.

PART TWO FOLLOWS.