Cattedrale di Santa Maria del Fiore

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The Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore (English: Basilica of Saint Mary of The Flower), commonly called the Duomo (English: Cathedral), was the largest cathedral located in the Italian city of Florence.

History

Construction

One of Italy's largest churches, and the largest landmark in Florence, Santa Maria del Fiore is considered by many to be the first masterpiece of Renaissance architecture.

Although the church was designed by Arnolfo di Cambio in 1296, the dome was not started until the beginning of the 15th Century. With Cambio long dead, none of the architects at that time had any idea how to construct such an enormous structure, since the use of buttresses was forbidden in Florence and mortar took several days to set.

But all was not lost. In an amazing comeback story, Filippo Brunelleschi, an architect who had been defeated in an earlier bid to design the Baptistery doors, won the competition to build the dome. He beat out Lorenzo Ghiberti, the same artist he had lost to before.

Brunelleschi invented machines to hoist the bricks needed for the dome up to the workers and was able to construct the entire dome without using centering (a support structure to hold the dome in place while bricks were laid). Containing over 4 million bricks, the dome was completed in 1436.

The lantern was added after Brunelleschi's death in 1446, and supposedly contains holy relics.

Beat a Cheat

In 1476, Ezio Auditore beat up his sister Claudia's cheating boyfriend Duccio de Luca near the Basilica.

Pazzi Conspiracy

In 1478, it was here that Lorenzo de' Medici and his brother, Giuliano, were attacked whilst attending High Mass, two years after Giovanni Auditore's death marked the outbreak of the Pazzi Conspiracy. At the time, construction of the basilica was almost complete, though the front face had not yet been finished.

Bonfire of the Vanities

In 1497, during the Bonfire of the Vanities, one of Girolamo Savonarola's lieutenants, the priest, took to praying from the top of the Duomo of the Basilica. Ezio silently scaled the structure and assasinated the priest.

Trivia

• The Santa Maria del Fiore is the tallest point in Florence, and in Italy in Assassin's Creed II, though it was still scaled down for the game.
• Missing from in front of the main entrance to the church is the Battistero di San Giovanni, which was built several hundred years before the events of the game.
• The facade is depicted in game as being partially incomplete, which is historically correct, but the design of the facade under construction matches the current one, which was not built until the 1800s. The original facade was never completed, and was dismantled in 1587.
• A feather is located at its pinnacle height.
• The church's side-tower, Giotto's Campanile contains the tallest viewpoint in Assassin's Creed II.
• The church is only accessible by entering the Assassin's Tomb of Iltani.
• In Assassin's Creed: Embers, Ezio Auditore died of a heart attack in 1524, on a bench located just outside the Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore.

Source

• Assassin's Creed II