Construction on the Dome of Florence Cathedral Begins

On August 7, 1420, work began on the dome of Florence Cathedral, and no one yet knew how to finish it. For decades the crossing had stood open to the sky, one hundred and forty feet across, because the timber framework such a vault required was beyond what the city could buy or support. Filippo Brunelleschi, a goldsmith who had lost the Baptistery doors competition to Lorenzo Ghiberti, proposed raising it with no centering at all. What rose above Florence is still the largest brick dome ever built.Send me a text!Support the show