Map of Duomo di Milano
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Community Reviews
Andrew_Kerr
There's an old adage that goes, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and for me Milan Cathedral has one of the most beautiful west fronts of any cathedral I've visited.
How anyone can stand before Milan Cathedral and not be blown away by the sheer size and beauty of the building is beyond me. I'd say it's much more impressive than, for example, Westminster Abbey that looks like a Gothic tick box of building style.
Milan Cathedral is different and it was different a long time ago, it bucked the trend, it dared to be different, it did what cathedrals are supposed to do, it wowed people, it made them feel that here, was a special place. A quick check on Wikipedia describes the building as groundbreaking and I totally agree.
Of course it has changed, evolved over the centuries to the building we see today but that's no bad thing, what we see today in the culmination of artistic ecclesiastical architecture in the most cultured country on the planet.
Really, if you can't appreciate the greatness of this building then maybe you just don't understand architecture. Give it a full listing UNESCO, what's wrong with you?
Assif
Yet another Gothic cathedral is surely not what the WH list needs. The Cathedral of Milan prides in being one of the largest churches in the world, the third largest in Europe and the largest in Italy. Its size is indeed the most impressive feature it has to offer. Having been built for centuries, some of its exterior still remains uncompleted. Despite its overall Gothic style it displays a mixture of styles reflecting its construction over centuries. The artistic quality of the building is very uneven, something that has been heavily criticised by famous visitors like Oscar Wilde as well as art historians. I would personally not judge it as unappealing, as many claim it to be, but it is certainly not the best Italy has got to offer. Even Milan itself has some more beautiful churches to offer, such as San Maurizio and Sant'Ambrogio, but this is admittably a matter of personal taste. The duomo greatly reminds me of the Cologne Cathedral for its size and overall shape, although the latter is a better representative of this category. I personally prefer other types of churches and I am happy Italy did not pursue this nomination.