Florence, the Renaissance city
The Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore (Basilica of Saint Mary of the Flower) was begun in 1296 and completed in 1436 with the dome engineered by Filippo Brunelleschi (1377 – 1446); he won the commission in 1419: although the building had been designed a century earlier, no one had any idea about how such a dome was to be built. He succeeded brilliantly. The Campanile, the 84 metres high free standing bell tower was designed by Giotto di Bondone and built from 1334 to 1359.
Photo by Ludo Kuipers, Sun Nov 13, 1994