The facade of santa maria del Fiore in Florence: a 6 century long enterprise
The Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore has become one of the most famous churches in the world, especially thanks to the amazing dome of which Filippo Brunelleschi endowed it with.
Not everyone knows, however, that the symbolic building of Florence has a very troubled history, which lasted almost 600 years. What was the major complication during its construction that caused this centuries-old delay in the completion of the cathedral? It was not a structural problem, nor a technical problem, nor was it the design and implementation of the most ambitious and innovative architectural enterprise of Fifteenth century Florence, that of Brunelleschi's masonry dome. No. The dome was built in 16 years and finished in 1436, almost 400 years before the cathedal’s construction sites closed for good.
The
real problem was giving the cathedral a proper facade.
But let's start from the beginning.
The laying of the first stone of the cathedral of Florence took place in 1296. At the time Florence was experiencing a period of great expansion and needed a cathedral worthy of the city’s prestige.
The Baptistery had become the centerpiece of the square, while the ancient church of Santa Reparata now seemed small and shabby in comparison. So it was decided to give the city a new main church, entrusting the work to the architect who was already working on the construction sites of Palazzo Vecchio and Santa Croce: Arnolfo di Cambio.
Arnolfo di Cambio's project was very ambitious, and envisaged the construction of an enormous church, richly decorated, to make the cathedrals of Pisa and Siena, great rivals of Florence, pale in comparison.
Unfortunately, the architect was unable to see the end of the works, on the contrary, when he died in 1310, they were just starting, with only two bays and half a facade finished. This last element proved to be a real torment for all the architects who followed one another at the head of the project.
The construction site resumed its work in 1331 under the direction of Giotto, who designed the famous bell tower, and then passed into the hands of Andrea Pisano and then Francesco Talenti, who gave the church the final layout.
The body of the church was
finished in 1436 with Brunelleschi's huge dome. It may
have seemed that we were at a good point by then, but no one could foresee that
to finish the facade, the last missing piece of the cathedral, it would take
another 4 centuries.
On the left, Poccetti's drawing of the Cathedral before the dismantling of the decoration. On the right, a photo from 1860 showing the brick facade.
The first turnaround in the construction of the façade of the cathedral of Florence took place by decision of the Grand Duke Francesco I dei Medici, who had the entire decoration that had remained unfinished dismantled. Fortunately, a drawing by the painter Bernardino Poccetti remains as evidence of the original decoration which was lost.
Thus, in 1587 Bernardo Buontalenti was commissioned to remove all the marble decorations and sculptures from the facade and to cover it with bricks. Francesco I's project was to update the facade according to the taste of the time, covering it with frescoes, but this was never carried out and the cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore sported a face of bricks until the end of the nineteenth century.
Over the centuries, contests were held for the construction of the new façade but none of the projects were ever implemented.
In the meantime the cathedral was equipped with temporary facades, made of paintings or wooden decorations, prepared for special occasions such as the wedding of Ferdinando I dei Medici with Christina of Lorraine, or those between Prince Ferdinand and Violante of Bavaria, or for the arrival of Margherita Luisa d'Orléans, wife of Cosimo III de Medici.
It was Leopold II of Habsburg Lorraine, penultimate Grand Duke of Tuscany, who appointed a commission in 1858 to be able to give a definitive facade to the Florentine cathedral, but only in 1870, after winning two consecutive competitions, was the project of the Florentine architect Emilio chosen. De Fabris.
On May 12, 1887, the facade of the cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore was inaugurated.
A memorable event, which saw important personalities arrive in the city, including King Umberto and his wife.
The moved crowd burst into applause at the unveiling of the facade. Finally, after 6 centuries from the laying of the first stone, the cathedral of Florence had a face.