The Duomo in Milan

Besides coming to Milan for the shopping (which even for us was tempting), the principle attraction for any visitor is the Duomo; a massive cathedral that represents the very height of the Gothic style of architecture.

Now to put in perspective how impressive this cathedral is, I must preface my description by saying that I will always consider this "The Summer of Scaffolding". Part of Siena's courtyard was in scaffolding when we went, as was a part of Florence's Duomo, half of Santa Croce and most of the Parthenon...but this took the cake: the facade of the Duomo in Milan was so impressive that one look at a picture and we put it on our itinerary. Seeing that facade was the only reason we went to Milan, and further, we were very excited to see it.

And coming up out of the metro station on our first day in the city, ready to be blown away by this crowning achievement of Gothic architecture, this is what we saw:

First step out of the subway station and this is what we see...and that's after a ten hour train ride to get there to see it!

You would think that this would be a bad start to a visit to a city, that being the sole reason for coming. The sight of it - after so much anitcipation - was so ridiculous that all yo could really do was laugh. Two days later, on entering the church (we were wearing shorts the first day, and thus could not enter), however, we were immediately assailed by scale, the ambition and the humbling magnitude of the place. That's how amazing this place is; even with the front completely covered, the rest is so incredible that you can't help but be awed all the same.

Standing in Milan's Duomo, one is doubly humbled; first by the shock to one's conception of what was technically possible by the hand of mankind, and secondly in the knowledge that we no longer possess the capacity to create such things, whether it be for a lack of will, ambition, or vision, I don't know. The towering pillars thrust the vaulted ceiling so high as to give the impression that one is inside a hollowed mountain, and the awesome space - lit by stain-glass windows larger than most other churches - immediately imposes on the visitor with the impression that they are but a little creature who has wandered into the realm of giants.

The Duomo looms over the surrounding buidlings...

This is no exaggeration...I am certain that this was precisely the intention of the designers. Take the organ, for example. The Duomo has not one, but two of them, facing eachother across the pulpit. Not only are they both of an impressively grand scale (as in so many churches), but they have also each been equipped with a set of artfully painted doors to swing closed over the piping, as if they were but little instruments sitting in some nobleman's salon. Though that is the first impression one receives from the 'little doors', the next and more forceful one involves the realization that the doors are each more easily compared in size with a bus than they are with anything that would fit in one's home.

To put crude numbers to it all, the interior of the church is supported by 52 columns, practically disappear into the gloom of the distant ceiling. Each pillar stands - get this - four hundred and eighty six feet tall (148m).

A visit to the roof only compounds the effect. Still a rather tall building even by today's standards, the Duomo impresses not so much by its height, but more by the fact that one feels that they have emerged from a dark staircase into an impossible world of pillars, statues and winding staircases forming an improbable landscape of marble superimposed on the panorama of rooftops in the layered Milanese skyline.

Looking up at the tower that stretches high above, it's hard to believe that you're on the roof. That's right, this picture was taken from on top of the church (500ft up), and there's still that much more above.

Walking through this manic garden of suspended marble, supported by the massive blocks of stone which make up the roof, one is reminded of the 486ft pillars that are holding all of it up. If not for the precipitous drop to the courtyard five hundred feet below which reminds you of where you are, it would be impossible to imagine that all the structures around you (some of which are larger than a house) are actually on a roof. Indeed, the top of the church is adorned with a total of 135 pinnacles, each topped with a statue, a giant central tower and 2,245 random other statues.

Having now been travelling on a continent as jam packed as this one is with impressive buildings, it's incredible to see one that goes so far beyond all the others...no wonder it took them 450 years to finish building it!