Dome of Santa Maria del Fiore

The dome of Florence Cathedral, built by Filippo Brunelleschi between 1420 and 1436. It measures 41 metres across inside and rises to 116 metres counting the lantern. It has a double shell (an inner cover and an outer one tied together by buttresses) and is built of brick laid in a herringbone pattern, a Roman technique Brunelleschi worked out again for himself. Until then, closing the octagonal hole over the crossing was considered impossible, and it had stood open to the weather for almost a hundred years.