Milan’s first cathedral, the "new basilica" (basilica…
1389 CE
Milan’s first cathedral, the "new basilica" (basilica nova) dedicated to St. Thecla, was completed by 355.
It seems to share, on a slightly smaller scale, the plan of the contemporaneous church recently rediscovered beneath Tower Hill in London.
An adjoining basilica was erected in 836.
The old baptistery, the Battistero Paleocristiano, dates to 335 and still can be visited under the Milan Cathedral.
When a fire damaged the cathedral and basilica in 1075, they were rebuilt as the Duomo.
In 1386, Archbishop Antonio da Saluzzo had begun construction of the cathedral.
Start of the construction coincides with the ascension to power in Milan of the archbishop's cousin Gian Galeazzo Visconti, and is meant as a reward to the noble and working classes, who had suffered under his tyrannical Visconti predecessor Bernabò.
Before actual work begins, three main buildings are demolished: the palace of the Archbishop, the Ordinari Palace and the Baptistry of St. Stephen at the Spring, while the old church of Sta.
Maria Maggiore is exploited as a stone quarry.
Enthusiasm for the immense new building soon spreads among the population, and the shrewd Gian Galeazzo, together with his cousin the archbishop, collects large donations for the work-in-progress.
The construction program is strictly regulated under the "Fabbrica del Duomo", which has three hundred employees led by first chief engineer Simone da Orsenigo.
Orsenigo initially planned to build the cathedral from brick in Lombard Gothic style.
Visconti had ambitions to follow the newest trends in European architecture.
In 1389, a French chief engineer, Nicolas de Bonaventure, is appointed, adding to the church its Rayonnant Gothic, a French style not typical for Italy.
He decides that the brick structure should be paneled with marble.
Galeazzo gives the Fabbrica del Duomo exclusive use of the marble from the Candoglia quarry and exempts it from taxes.
Regions
Southwest Europe
View →Subregions
