Duomo di Firenze Took 140 Years To Build

The cathedral in Florence, Italy is called Florence Cathedral, or Cattedrale di Santa Maria del Fiore (Italian: Duomo di Firenze). It took over 140 years to construct, starting in 1296 in the Gothic style with a design by Arnolfo di Cambio. Filippo Brunelleschi engineered the dome, which was installed in 1436. The basilica's ornate 19th-century Gothic Revival façade by Emilio De Fabris is framed by panels of polychrome marble in varying colors of green and pink, bordered by white.

The Baptistery and Giotto's Campanile are part of the cathedral's larger Piazza del Duomo complex. These three structures are a top Tuscany tourist destination and are a component of the UNESCO World Heritage Site that encompasses Florence's medieval center. The basilica is one of the biggest churches in Italy, and the dome was the biggest in the world before the invention of new building materials in the modern age. Only St. Peter's Basilica in Rome and St. Paul's in London are larger today, but it is still the biggest masonry dome ever constructed.