Milan trip - Milan Cathedral

Another adventure, another journey. Like every destination, I see this one not as a destination, but as a new experience, meeting new people and learning about another culture. Milan is a city known for fashion, at every step I saw women and men dressed like top models, it was a new experience, what I watch every day on TV, there I had the opportunity to see it in person. I liked it at one point, and I thought that I could try dressing like that, but that's not me, so I continued taking photos and enjoying the streets of Milan. This city is not only a city of fashion, but also a city that exudes a rich culture and history. I walked through those fashionable streets and came across the cathedral. I believe that Milan is famous for it.

When I found myself in front of Milan Cathedral, I paused, as everyone who has ever set foot in Piazza del Duomo does. It was not a classic tourist photo stop, but a moment of genuine admiration. I had the feeling that I was looking at something that was not built by hands but by dreams. There was more than a building in front of me. It was a monument to time, faith, art, and an ambition that transcended the life of one man.

The cathedral began to be built in 1386, at a time when Milan was under the rule of the Visconti family, and the idea was simple but grandiose: to create the largest and most beautiful Gothic cathedral in Italy. The Visconti wanted to transform their city into a symbol of power and spirituality, and at that moment, one of the longest architectural journeys in European history began.

What immediately catches the eye is the unusual style, because the Duomo is not the pure Gothic that we might expect from France or Germany, but a unique blend of Gothic and Renaissance expression, with influences from Baroque and Neoclassicism, because each new century brought new architects, new ideas, but also political changes. Italian, German, French, and even Spanish masters worked here. This is evident because each corner has its own voice, and yet, everything sings in the same harmony.

The cathedral is built of a special whitish marble from Lake Maggiore, which has been brought in by boats and ox teams for decades. This marble has the strange power to turn pink or golden in the light, depending on the time of day. When I arrived, the sun was low and the cathedral seemed to glow from within. That light was not aggressive, but pleasant. It seemed to invite you to come closer.

The facade itself, the one we all see and paint, was actually only completed in the 19th century, by order of Napoleon Bonaparte. During his reign in northern Italy, he demanded that it be finally completed. It speaks volumes that he insisted on being crowned in the Duomo. His statue still stands in one of the stained glass windows as a reminder that this temple, like the city itself, has always been at the crossroads of power, ambition, and art.

I didn’t go inside, but I didn’t have to. From the outside, you can see everything if you stop and really look. The cathedral has more than 40 spires and over 3,400 statues (2300 are located outside, while 1100 statues are located inside the cathedral), many of which are so tall that you can barely see them with the naked eye. But you know they’re there. Each statue was carved by someone by hand, for someone the statue was the last work of their life. That’s what you feel when you stand in front of it, the amount of human effort and perseverance.

One of these statues is the Madonna, a gilded figure of the Virgin Mary at the very top. It stands at a height of over 100 meters and is the protector of the city. There was a long-standing rule that no building in Milan could be taller than it. Even when a new skyscraper was built, they placed a replica of the Madonna on top of it, so that the symbol would remain the tallest.

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As I walked around the cathedral, I listened to street musicians and watched pigeons play around passersby. Everyone is on their own path, but everyone stops for at least a moment. Some for the architecture, some for the photography, and some because they feel they are standing in front of something bigger than themselves. The cathedral is a reminder that beauty can last for centuries, that great things are created slowly but permanently. And that sometimes you don’t need to go inside to feel something deeply.

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All photos were taken by me with my phone Samsung S23