Topic summary
Santa Maria del Fiore
Extracted from the Wikipedia article Florence Cathedral.
History
Santa Maria del Fiore was built on the site of Florence's second cathedral dedicated to Saint Reparata; the first bishop's seat was the Basilica of San Lorenzo, the initial building of which was consecrated as a church in 393 by St. Ambrose of Milan. The ancient structure, founded in the early 5th century and having undergone many repairs, was crumbling with age, according to the 14th-century Nuova Cronica of Giovanni Villani, and was no longer large enough to serve the growing population of the city. Other major Tuscan cities had undertaken ambitious reconstructions of their cathedrals during the Late Medieval period, such as Pisa and particularly Siena where the enormous proposed extensions were never completed.