Milan Cathedral Cathedral. Milan Cathedral, Dòmm de Milan in Milanese dialect, is a cathedral, a symbolic monument of the Lombard capital and one of the symbols of Italy, dedicated to Santa Maria Nascente, located in the square of the same name, in the center of the metropolis. By surface it is the third largest Catholic church in the world after St. Peter's in the Vatican and the cathedral of Seville.
The ancient cathedral of Santa Maria Maggiore and the basilica of Santa Tecla once stood in the place where the Cathedral stands. After the collapse of the bell tower, Archbishop Antonio de 'Saluzzi promoted the reconstruction of a new and larger cathedral on 12 May 1386. For the new building both the previous churches began to be demolished bricks according to Lombard Gothic techniques. In January 1387 the foundations of the pillars were laid. What was done before 1386 was almost completely undone. During the year, the Lord Gian Galeazzo Visconti took control of the works, imposing a more ambitious project.
The material chosen for the new construction then became Candoglia marble. The architectural forms those of the late Gothic of Rhenish-Bohemian inspiration. Gian Galeazzo's desire was in fact to give the city a grandiose building in step with the most up-to-date European trends. Gian Galeazzo made the quarries available and granted heavy subsidies and tax exemptions. Each block destined for the Duomo was marked AUF (Ad usum fabricae), and therefore exempt from any passing tax.
The factory then went ahead in a climate of tension, with numerous revisions, which despite everything gave rise to a work of unmistakable originality, both in the Italian and European panorama.Initially the foundations had been prepared for a building with three naves, with chapels square sides, whose dividing walls could also act as buttresses. It was then decided to do without the chapels, bringing the number of aisles to five. On July 19, 1391, the enlargement of the four central pillars was approved. On 1 May 1392 the shape of the progressively decreasing naves was chosen for a maximum height of 76 braccia.
The interior has five naves, with a three-nave transept. The presbytery is deep and surrounded by an ambulatory, alongside which the two sacristies open. The central nave is twice as wide as the lateral ones, which are slightly decreasing in height, so as to allow the opening of small pointed arch windows, above the arches of the vaults, which illuminate the interior in a diffuse and subdued manner. The triforium is missing. The fifty-two polystyle pillars divide the naves.
They support the ribbed vaults simulating a Gothic tunnel. This decoration was begun from the apse (mid-15th century), continued in the lantern (1501) and again in the 17th, up to the additions and renovations by Achille Alberti and Alessandro Sanquirico (from 1823). It has not been reinstated since 1964. The monumental capitals with niches and cusps with statues that decorate the pillars along the central nave, the transept and the apse are very original. Some capitals have a double register, with statues of saints in the niches surmounted by statues of prophets in the cusps. The other pillars have decorations with plant motifs.
The floor, based on an original design by Pellegrino Tibaldi, was begun in 1584 and finished, with variations, only between 1914 and 1940. It is a complex intertwining of light and dark marbles, between such as the black Varenna, the white and pink of Candoglia, the red of Arzo. Tibaldi also defined the side altars, the mausoleums, the choir and the presbytery, following the requests of Cardinal Borromeo. The interior today has an aspect that is mainly affected by this era, linked to the Counter-Reformation period. In the eighteenth century some monuments were transferred to the spans towards the facade, recently completed.
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