Duomo di Santa Maria del Fiore

For all its importance and prosperity, Florence was one of the last medieval cities to plan a great cathedral (duomo). Work began in the 1290s, with the sculptor Arnolfo di Cambio in charge, and from the beginning the Florentines attempted to make up for their delay with sheer audacity. ‘It will be so magnificent in size and beauty’, according to a decree of 1296, ‘as to surpass anything built by the Greeks and Romans.'

Arnolfo planned what in its day was the largest church in Christendom, on the site of the older, much smaller duomo dedicated to Florence's original patron Santa Reparata. He confidently laid the foundations for an enormous octagonal crossing 146ft in diameter, and then died before working out a way to cover it, leaving future architects the job of designing the biggest dome in the world.

Beyond its presumptuous size, the cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore shows little interest in contemporary innovations and styles; a visitor from France or England in the 1400s would probably have found it somewhat drab and architecturally primitive.