Piazza Duomo (distance from the hotel: 3,5 km)
Milan Cathedral (Italian: Duomo di Milano) is the cathedral church of Milan.
Milan's layout, with streets either radiating from the Duomo or circling it, reveals that the Duomo occupies the most central site in Roman Mediolanum.
Saint Ambrose's 'New Basilica' was built on this site at the beginning of the 5th century, with an adjoining basilica added in 836. When a fire damaged both buildings in 1075, they were rebuilt as the Duomo.
In 1386 archbishop Antonio da Saluzzo began construction in a rayonnant Late Gothic style more typically French than Italian. 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 which had been suppressed by his tyrannical Visconti predecessor Barnabò.
In 1762 one of the main features of the cathedral, the Madonnina's spire, was erected at the dizzying height of 108.5 m. The spire was designed by Francesco Croce and sports at the top a famous polychrome Madonnina statue, designed by Giuseppe Perego in 1774 that befits the original stature of the cathedral. Given Milan's notoriously damp and foggy climate, the Milanese consider it a fair-weather day when the Madonnina is visible from a distance, as it is so often covered by mist.
By tradition, no building in Milan is higher than the Madonnina. When Gio Ponti's Pirelli Building was being built in the late 1950's, at a height of 127,1 m, a smaller replica of the Madonnina was placed atop the Pirelli building, so the new Madonnina remains the tallest point in Milan.
 |
 |
