The Milan Duomo is the most popular place for tourists visiting Milan. It is located in the city center and is famous for its incredible size, design, and history. In this article, I will share some exciting facts about the Milan Duomo for anyone who hasn’t gotten the chance to visit or even those who have been there but don’t know about the hidden historical stories!
1. Zodiac light
At the end of the church, most people might not notice that there are icons of zodiac signs on the floor. Zodiac signs are 12 specific constellations of the zodiac that the sun passes through. This is created to show the different time of the day that connects to the zodiac signs. On the wall facing east, a small hole allows light to come in. This light will accurately point to different zodiac signs according to the hours. This is very interesting, if you visit, you can take a look and find your zodiac sign. However, since some parts of the church are closed sometimes not all zodiac signs would be showing.
2. Rooftop lion
One of the most popular features of the Milan Duomo is all the sculptures on the rooftop. However, a lot of people might not realize that on each side of the church. These lions are not only used as decorations on the rooftop. Spiritually and religiously, these lions are the protectors of the church that protect the church from the devil or bad spirits that are trying to go near the church. This is why there are four lions in every direction of the church to keep it safe. On the other hand, these lions also have actual use to help with collecting rainwater. The rainwater will separately go threw the four lions and comes out from their mouth. This can help with keeping all the rainwater in one spot and not all over the area.
3. Madonnina
The Madonnina is the highest point at the church, it is the gold statue of the Virgin Mary. As most people might have known and heard of this famous statue before, a lot of people may not know how this statue was respected in the past. In the past, this Moddonina had to be the highest point in the city, which means there are no other buildings that could be taller than the statue. It is absolutely one of the most awesome statues I have seen in the church. When you are on the rooftop, you will be able to see it. However, in the past people were able to go to a higher tower to look at the statue. Unfortunately, it is no longer allowed.
4. Baptistery
Moving to the ground floor of the Church, there is a collection of ancient bricks, coffins, and a Baptistery that is no longer complete. This was the first baptism of Christianity, where Augustine was baptized. Although there are only some remains, you are still able to see the structure of the baptistery. If you had a chance to visit this baptistery, I would hope you could look around the baptistery and imagine how it looked like in the past with the magnificent glamorous baptistery. Following this space, there are some coffins on the side, Until today, archaeologists are still trying to find whose coffins are because nobody has no clue where these mysterious coffins are from.
5. The holy nails
The holy nails, one of the iconic things of the Milan Duomo, what we call in the modern day, ‘‘elevator’’. It might be surprising, but this is still functioning in the 21st century, but of course, with machines. Unlike in the past, when strong men would be pulling ropes to get the pope up there. Once you enter the church, in the center, there is a red dot of light, which is where the holy nails will be. Yes, as tall as that. When this is not used, they will hang it at a place on the roof on top of the church as storage space. Next time you visit, why not try to look for the unused holy nails?
6. The bricks
The church has been built out of white marble from 1386 till now. These marbles require maintenance so everyone in a while people will need to clean them so they don't get dark. Only when the marble is too dirty, they will change into new marble. This is why you can see that the marbles have different colors, some are darker and some are lighter. These bricks are very heavy so the transportation for bringing bricks was very difficult. However, people came up with the idea of transporting with water. In ancient time, Milan had lots of rivers going through the city, and right in front of the church was a port, therefore, from that time on, all the bricks for building the church was shipped by boat. Until in modern days, the government chose to fill up the river, they started using land transportation.
7. St Bartholomew Flayed
This is one of the only few completely naked statues in the church, that is wearing his skin over his shoulder. In history, he was skinned alive as the punishment for converting people to Christianity and believing in Christianity. From a distance, you will simply think it is a normal statue of a person, however, when you go near you can so all the bloodlines, muscles, and skin. This statue used to be on the top of the church along the walls, however, they chose to move it down to the floor and allow people to take a good look at it. If you stayed slightly on the side of the statue, you would be able to see at the back of the statue, there are pieces of skin that came off its body, and it's extremely impressive to see in person.
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