The Cathedral, Milan, Italy

Categories

Special Collections > Keystone Slides

Type

tiff scanned file from original glass slide

Description

Have you seen pictures of the flabby-topped riding boot that some cavalrymen wear? Italy, on the map, looks like one of these boots, with the toe pointing toward Sicily and the heel toward the Balkan countries. In the center of the top of this boot is the city of Milan (ml´ n). Milan is the second city of Italy in size, Naples only being larger. It has a population of 600,000. This makes it considerably larger than Pittsburgh, but not quite so large as St. Louis. It is the money center of Italy, as it is also the chief manufacturing city. Fine furniture, cotton, silk, and woolen goods are made. But the thousands of tourists who visit Milan each year do not go to see its factories. If you set a certain building of Milan in any village, that village would immediately be well known. This building is the cathedral. In this scene is shown beautifully the wonders of the outside of this structure. Unlike many cathedrals, this one is rather squat in appearance. No high tower leaps skyward to give it grace. Its beauty lies in its delicacy of line and fineness of finish. It is built of white marble throughout. The towers on its roof number 98, and each tower is a marvel in itself. On the outside there are 2,000 statues. The best effect of the building can be had at night under the bright light of the Italian moon. Then it appears to be some palace of the fairies that has strayed to earth. The wonder of the building grows on one when he sees its size. It is one of the largest churches in the world. It measures 486 feet in length and 288 feet in width. It took many centuries to complete such a work. The cathedral was begun in 1386. The great bronze door was finished in 1906. The style of the building is Gothic. Keystone ID: 1941 Note: All titles, descriptions, and location coordinates are from the original Keystone Slide documentation as supplied by the Keystone View Company. No text has been edited or changed.

Rights

Copyright by the Keystone View Company. The original slides are housed in McConnell Library's Special Collections.