Santa Maria del Fiore

Santa Maria del Fiore The Santa Maria del Fiore was to be the most beautiful attraction of Florence. The building would be the biggest project for Florence nevertheless the complications would decelerate the process. The will of the citizens allowed the building to continue in order to finish the masterpiece they had started, no matter what the expense. Flying buttresses were the traditional towers for gothic architecture but those were considered unappealing to the people of Florence. The complication with building the dome was learning how to even out the weight and not having the top cave in. ‘Hoop stress’ was a problem for building domes made of stone because the lateral thrust caused cracks to run down the sides of the cupola. To avoid this issue, a fish bone structure was built out of brick and covered the outside dome. Fillipo incorporated an inner dome in to give support and prevent the outer dome to expand. The angles of the different parts of the dome couldn’t be uneven so, a large plumb line was used to make sure the sides were parallel to each other.
The black plague swept over Europe killing millions and this had a vast effect on the resources for the Santa Maria del Fiore. The funding of the church was provided by the guilds so the money sources were limited. This also means fewer workers to do construction and they aren’t being paid enough so they were most likely to strike. Florence also was faced with a war against Milan along with many other battles. This depleted the resources and money that was needed to be used for the church. Another issue, was the transportation and the cost of the marble required more money from the merchants.
The Santa Maria del Fiore was a ground breaking project at the time that the people of Florence were determined to finish. The economic and technological complications did slow down the process but the wait was worth it for this church is still in remarkable condition to this day.