When you walk into the center of Florence, your eyes immediately gravitate toward the beautiful Duomo, called the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore. At the front of the cathedral, there is a beautiful and detailed façade, while toward the back you can see the top of the world’s largest brick dome. The construction of the dome began in the late thirteenth century, was completed by the mid-fifteenth century, and was engineered by Filippo Brunelleschi. This architectural feat remains the primary church in Florence. It stands as both one of Italy’s largest churches and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Everyday, the Duomo attracts thousands of people who explore the cathedral, climb to the top of the dome, walk through the museum, and enter the baptistery. The area around the cathedral is always filled with people, tourists and Italians alike, either stopping to take pictures, or walking through the piazza on their way through the center of the city.
Unlike some famous cathedrals, the Duomo has no entrance fee, which means anyone visiting Florence can walk in and see the beautiful architecture and take a moment to reflect inside of the church. They also offer multiple Masses a week, including a few Masses in English rather than Italian. From the top of the dome (after climbing 463 stairs), you can see all of Florence stretched out in front of you, from the Arno River to the Church of Santa Croce to the train station. For someone visiting Florence, I highly recommend making the hike to the top of the dome to see the view and to experience the history of the building. As you climb up the Duomo’s stairs, you walk by rooms that have some of the original tools that were used to build the dome back in the fifteenth century.
At the very heart of the city, the church’s location illustrates the importance of religion in Florentine culture. Even today, a Catholic church is the center of the city, appreciated daily for both its architecture and beauty, and its role as a place of worship. From the outside, I have observed how the city surrounds this one building, and similarly how the rest of Italian culture centers on religion. In 1984, the Lateran Treaty declared that Italy has no official religion. Despite this, however, the population in Florence is overwhelmingly Catholic.
As a Jesuit university, Georgetown, like Florence, has a strong Catholic population. Yet there is far less religious diversity here than at Georgetown. The homogeneity of Florence is interesting to me. Coming from such a diverse community as Georgetown, I have found it interesting to see how Florence’s population is closely tied together by nationality and religion. The dome stands out against the rest of the Florentine skyline, just as Catholicism stands out amongst the rest of the religions in Florence. Therefore it is clear that the Duomo represents far more than a relic of the past and stands as a symbol of contemporary society in Florence.
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