The Duomo Milano

When I got to Milan, I took the subway from the train station to a stop near the Duomo--the city cathedral.  The Duomo is one of the most iconic sites of the city.  It is a giant, magnificent, white, gothic cathedral, that is covered in lacy spires and turrets, with hundreds of statues of saints and angels covering the building.  It is a beautiful building and it is a dramatic sight, when coming around a corner in to the plaza, and seeing the Duomo across the square.  If you click here, there is a really impressive picture of the Duomo from the top of one of the nearby buildings on a stormy day.  It looks like a spooky castle in a movie.  It also gives you an idea of some of the details on the church and on the sheer size of the marble blocks that were used to build the facade.  Notice how each of the spires has a figure standing on top of it.

The building was begun in 1386 and officially became a church in 1577, after almost two hundred years of construction.  It is staggering to think that it took the people of Milan almost the same amount of time to build a church as it has been since the U.S. was created until now.  That is a pretty impressive sense of focus.  What is even more astounding, though, is that it wasn't completed as you see it now, with all of the crenelations and gates, until 1965.  That is a building process of 579 years!  You can see some in-process pictures of the Duomo, as well as a list of all 77 of the architects that have been in charge of building for the last six centuries if you go here.  The building looks a lot different without the white, spiky facade.

There were loads of tourists around, especially because, if you are the kind of person who appreciates bright, hot, sunny, Mediterranean weather, it was a gorgeous day.  One of the most shocking things about Italy, to me, was the amount of bare skin around.  This may have been a function of the tourists (people are always complaining about the inappropriate dress of tourists) but I think it was also just because it was so much warmer than up North--it is more fun to wear skimpy outfits, I imagine, when it is 100 degrees and sunny than when it is 70 degrees and cloudy and breezy.  The Duomo is a Catholic church, however, and sunny weather or not, they had very strict dress codes.  While standing in line, there were loads of signs saying "no shorts", "no short skirts", "no sleeveless shirts".  All of the guidebooks also include the same warnings about visiting cathedrals and churches, but there were still people who weren't allowed in, while I was waiting in line, and other folks were zipping off to buy t-shirts or scarves to cover up their shoulders so that they could get in.

There were lots of signs saying people needed to behave well, including not sitting on the steps.

Flash cameras weren't allowed inside the cathedral, so almost none of my interior photos turned out but if you go to this website, you can take a look at some very pretty pictures of the interior.  I thought that the floor tiles looked like they ought to be made into a quilt design.  I like the tri-color look.

It was a bit complicated to even get into the Duomo.  You could buy a ticket to get inside the building at the front door, but to get onto the roof, you had to go to a ticket kiosk across the street from the back-side of the cathedral and then had to go back into the church through a little, tiny back door.

You can see the tiny little ticket kiosk in the angle of this government building, with the Italian flag hanging on it.  When I took the picture, I was standing beside the cathedral.

One of the windows on the backside of the Duomo.

The Duomo is currently being restored.  In an attempt, I assume, to be more aesthetically pleasing, they have large mesh coverings over some of the scaffolding.  However, it seems like having giant computer ads on the side kind of defeats the purpose.

Here you can see the impressive amount of scaffolding that surrounds the tallest pinnacle of the Duomo.  This is from the roof, looking around one of the flying buttresses that help to support the cathedral. 

To visit the official, English language version of the Duomo Milan website, go here.  It is a pretty interesting website and it includes loads of historical information and photographs on everything from the marble quarries where they got the stones for the facade, to an explanation of the iconography displayed inside the cathedral.  

I did find a video that show the Duomo.  This video is a quick one minute overview.  It is pretty basic but it does have some pretty interesting information about the building.