The Florence Cathedral is famous of its dome. In the beginning of the 15th century, after a hundred years of construction cathedral was still missing a cupola. Design called for an octagonal dome higher and wider than any other ever been built. Building of such massive dome posed many technical problems. Rome's Pantheon became an inspiration, but there was not enough timber in the whole Tuscany to build wooden scaffolding and frame to support a construction. A new untraditional approach was the only solution.
Today's understanding of the mathematical tools and physical laws for calculating stresses were not known in the 15th century. All cathedral builders had to rely on intuition. To build the dome, architect Filippo Brunelleschi used vertical ribs and a herringbone brick pattern to transfer the weight of the bricks. Construction took sixteen years. The largest dome in the world was completed in 1436. To this day, it remains the largest brick dome ever constructed.
