Florence Cathedral

Florence's cathedral had stood as Santa Reparata since around the early 5th century, but by the late 13th century the building was crumbling with age, according to the chronicler Giovanni Villani, and could no longer hold the city's growing population; rival Tuscan cities such as Pisa and Siena were rebuilding their own cathedrals on an ambitious scale. The city council approved Arnolfo di Cambio's design for a replacement in 1294, calling for three wide naves converging under an octagonal dome. Cardinal Valeriana, the first papal legate sent to Florence, laid the first stone on 8 September 1296. Arnolfo died in 1302 and building slowed for almost fifty years, reviving only after the relics of Saint Zenobius were discovered under Santa Reparata in 1330. In 1331 the wool merchants' guild, the Arte della Lana, took over patronage of the works, and in 1334 appointed Giotto to oversee construction; his chief contribution, continuing Arnolfo's plan with Andrea Pisano's help, was to design and begin building the campanile. Giotto died on 8 January 1337.

Andrea Pisano carried on the building after Giotto's death until work was halted by the Black Death in 1348. Work resumed the following year under a series of architects beginning with Francesco Talenti, who completed the campanile and enlarged the plan to include the apse and side chapels; Giovanni di Lapo Ghini succeeded him in 1359 and divided the central nave into four square bays. The old church of Santa Reparata was finally pulled down by 1375, and the new nave was finished in 1380 — leaving only the dome incomplete.

In August 1418 the Arte della Lana opened a competition to design the dome, drawing two rival master goldsmiths, Lorenzo Ghiberti and Filippo Brunelleschi, the latter backed by Cosimo de' Medici. Brunelleschi won the commission, though Ghiberti was appointed coadjutor on an equal salary; when Brunelleschi fell ill, or feigned illness, Ghiberti briefly took charge before reportedly admitting the project was beyond him, and Brunelleschi resumed sole control in 1423. Erection of the dome began in 1420 and finished in 1436 — the first octagonal dome in history built without a temporary wooden supporting frame. Pope Eugene IV consecrated the cathedral in March 1436, a ceremony marked by the performance of Guillaume Dufay's motet Nuper rosarum flores.

Construction of the dome's lantern began a few months before Brunelleschi's death in 1446; progress stalled for fifteen years under successive architects before his friend Michelozzo completed it in 1461, and Andrea del Verrocchio crowned the structure with a gilt copper ball and cross in 1469, bringing the total height of dome and lantern to 114.5 metres. Lightning struck the ball down on 17 July 1600; a larger replacement went up two years later. The cathedral's original marble façade, left unfinished after Arnolfo di Cambio's death, was dismantled in 1587–88 on the orders of Grand Duke Francesco I de' Medici as outmoded, and the west front then stood bare for three centuries. A competition to design a new façade was won by Emilio De Fabris in 1871, and his polychrome Gothic Revival design was built between 1876 and 1887.

Florence Cathedral remains the seat of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Florence and holds the rank of minor basilica. Together with the adjoining Baptistery and Giotto's Campanile, it has been part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site covering the historic centre of Florence since 1982, and is separately recognised as Italian national heritage.