The Largest Brick Dome

The Duomo in Florence has the largest brick dome ever and is often referred to as the “Birthplace of the Renaissance”. The dome was a huge challenge since ancient domes in Italy such as the Pantheon in Rome had been constructed using concrete but the recipe for concrete had been lost in the Dark Ages. 

Medieval gothic cathedrals relied on flying buttresses to support their massive stone weight but architects and engineers of the budding Renaissance were determined not to use flamboyant Gothic and wanted to look back to the simple, clean lines of their Roman past.

The architect Filippo Brunelleschi came up with a solution. The Duomo is actually two domes. The inner dome is made of sandstone and marble. The outer dome is made of brick-and-mortar—each brick carefully designed, shaped, and fired to support the dome. The dome was constructed without any supports beneath it and was an immediate success with Brunelleschi becoming the chief architect associated with the Renaissance.