Metropolitan Cathedral-Basilica Of The Nativity Of Saint Mary, Milan, Italy. Basilica Cattedrale Metropolitana Di Santi Maria Nascente, Milano. (Part Four).

English: Milan Cathedral.

Italiano: Milano - Duomo.

This File: 30 January 2014.

Source: Own work.

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User: Чаховіч Уладзіслаў

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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 Chief Engineer Simone da Orsenigo. Orsenigo initially planned to build the Cathedral from brick in Lombard Gothic style.

Milan Cathedral’s roof is accessible to tourists.

Photo: 21 June 2016.

Source: Own work.

Author: Daniel Case

(Wikimedia Commons)

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 style.

Galeazzo gave the Fabbrica del Duomo exclusive use of the Marble from the Candoglia quarry and exempted it from taxes. 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.[9]

Mignot declared all the work done, up until then, as “in pericolo di ruina” (“in peril of ruin”), as it had been done “sine scienzia” (“without science”).

The Gold Madonna at the top of Milan Cathedral.

Photo: 22 February 2014.

Source: Own work.

Attribution: © José Luiz Bernardes Ribeiro /

CC BY-SA 3.0

Author: José Luiz .

(Wikimedia Commons)

In the following years, Mignot’s forecasts proved untrue, but they spurred Galeazzo’s engineers to improve their instruments and techniques. However, relations between Gian Galeazzo and the top management of the factory (chosen by the citizens of Milan) were often tense: The lord (who in 1395 had become Duke of Milan) intended to transform the Cathedral into the dynastic mausoleum of the Visconti, inserting into the central part of the Cathedral a funeral monument of his father Galeazzo II, and this met with strong opposition from both the factory and the Milanese, who wanted to underline their autonomy.

PART FIVE FOLLOWS.