It’s no secret that Italy is my favorite international destination. Milano is definitely in the Top 5 list of cities in Italy for me, and this is one of the reasons why.

This is Il Duomo di Milano, or The Milan Cathedral. Construction began in 1386 by Archbishop Antonio da Saluzzo. It was supposed to commemorate the ascension of the Duke of Milan, and the Archbishop’s cousin, Gian Galeazzo Visconti.

There’s a surprise on the left side of the balcony above the door in the picture above. If the statue looks familiar to you, it’s because the statue is the piece that inspired the Statue of Liberty in New York City.

The first King of Italy, the French Napoleon Bonaparte, ordered the completion of the facade in 1805. It took another 7 years, but the cathedral is said to have actually been fully completed in 1965 when the last of the gates was inaugurated.

The statue in the Piazza del Duomo, or the cathedral square, is of the first king of a unified Italy Vittorio Emmanuele II. Napoleon was technically a king of Italy, but it had not yet been unified as its own domain. The title that Napoleon officially held was King of Naples.

The statue was created by Ercole Rosa and was completed in 1879 as a monument to the Father of the Fatherland. 

As you can see, the duomo is covered in statues, spires, and other works of art. It has 3,400 statues, 135 gargoyles, and 700 figures that decorate the ornate cathedral. 

A can’t miss opportunity for this site is to climb to the roof and take a look. Even on a rainy day like when I visited, the view is awesome!

There is a golden statue that rests at the top of the largest spire on the cathedral. The name of this statue is Madonnina. It is a depiction of the Virgin Mary, as is easily found anywhere in Italy. She is a little too hard to get a good picture of, even from the roof, because of her height, but that doesn’t mean you can’t admire her up close. There is an exact replica that sits behind the altar inside the duomo.

I highly recommend stopping to see this inspiring work of art.

If you like to study the Bible or adhere to Christian beliefs, you might recognize this last duomo gem that I will talk about.

This guy is pretty famous by himself, but the reason is because of the character he depicts. This is a statue of the martyr Bartholomew, who was flayed alive.

St. Bartholomew Flayed (1562) is a gruesome piece. It was famously written about by Mark Twain in Innocents Abroad, Chapter 18.

“‘It was a hideous thing, and yet there was a fascination about it somehow. I am very sorry I saw it, because I shall always see it now. I shall dream of it sometimes. I shall dream that it is resting its corded arms on the bed’s head and looking down on me with its dead eyes; I shall dream that it is stretched between the sheets with me and touching me with its exposed muscles and its stringy cold legs. It is hard to forget repulsive things’ 

Bartholomew is a pretty famous character, and is even depicted in my favorite painting, The Last Judgement (Michelangelo) which is the lesser famous painting that calls the Sistine Chapel in Vatican City its home.