Il Duomo Florence Italy is a photograph by Joan Carroll which was uploaded on March 28th, 2017.
Il Duomo Florence Italy
If you are a compulsive climber of towers like I am, you will climb to the top of the dome of Il Duomo in Florence, Italy, and you will also climb... more
by Joan Carroll
Title
Il Duomo Florence Italy
Artist
Joan Carroll
Medium
Photograph - Photography And Digital Art
Description
If you are a compulsive climber of towers like I am, you will climb to the top of the dome of Il Duomo in Florence, Italy, and you will also climb the bell tower, the Campanile, right next to it. If all you want is a good photo of the Dome, just climb the Campanile up a couple of levels for the best view of the dome of the cathedral. You don't even need to go all the way to the top for the best view...except if you are a compulsive climber of towers! The dome is as famous as the cathedral itself, perhaps even more so, and the story of its creation is captivating! The church was built two centuries before the dome and for those two centuries, there was just a gigantic hole in the roof! The town fathers of Florence decided that it needed a cupola, the largest one on earth, to make it the most beautiful churches ever build. But no one in 1418 knew how to build a dome 150' across, starting 180' above the ground, atop existing walls. There were no flying buttresses. Could a dome weighing tens of thousands of tons stay up without them? Was there enough timber in Tuscany for the scaffolding that would be needed? And could a dome be built at all on the octagonal floor plan dictated by the existing walls without collapsing them? No one knew. Long story short, "a short, homely, and hot-tempered goldsmith named Filippo Brunelleschi, promised to build not one but two domes, one nested inside the other, without elaborate and expensive scaffolding. Yet he refused to explain how he'd achieve this, fearing that a competitor would steal his ideas." He got the job anyway and nearly six centuries after it was completed, the dome of Santa Maria del Fiore cathedral in Florence remains the city's icon and a marvel of engineering. The 150-foot-wide (46-meter-wide) dome effectively ignited the creative explosion known as the Renaissance.
FEATURED PHOTO, Arts Fantastic world group, 7/1/17
FEATURED PHOTO, Churches group, 6/28/17
FEATURED PHOTO, The World We See Group, 6/27/17
FEATURED PHOTO, Exploration Photography group, 3/30/17
FEATURED PHOTO, The Road To Self Promotion group, 3/29/17
FEATURED PHOTO, First Friday Gallery Group 1x Day group, 3/28/17
joan carroll, churches, cathedrals, firenze, domes, red, blue, monument, tuscany, travel, tourism, landmark, cityscape, basilica, europe, italian, architecture
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Uploaded
March 28th, 2017
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Comments (94)
Christopher James
One of your peers nominated this image in the 1000 views Groups nominated images by your fellow artist in the Special Features #7 promotion discussion. Please visit and pass on the love to another artist.