After eighteen years of interventions, the restoration of the tiburium of Milan Cathedral has been completed, a crucial step in the long conservation program involving the Milanese cathedral. The completion of the work marks an important phase for the Veneranda Fabbrica del Duomo and for European architectural heritage protection practices, with the gradual removal of the scaffolding that had shrouded the top of the monument since 2008.
The work site covered first the Main Spire and, starting in 2017, the tiburium, with a total extension of more than eight hundred square meters of restored surfaces. The organization of the work revolved around a scaffolding system of particular complexity, flanking the traditional external structures with an internal scaffolding suspended in the void, placed about sixty meters above the High Altar and anchored through the cathedral’s large windows. This solution made it possible to keep the cathedral open during all phases of the construction, without interrupting celebrations and visiting activities. The dimensions of the intervention render the technical scope of the operation. Around and inside the top of the cathedral, about eight kilometers of steel pipes were assembled, for a total temporary structure of 3,600 tons, while the work on the dome developed to a height of more than eighty meters.
The intervention combined structural consolidation and material restoration. The Candoglia marble underwent cleaning and in-depth diagnostic analysis aimed at monitoring its state of preservation. Inside, sixty statues that had never been subjected to previous interventions, progressively obscured over the centuries by candle smoke, were recovered. The operations employed selective techniques such as dry cleaning and the use of controlled chemical compresses, with the aim of recovering decorative details and expanding the art-historical knowledge of the complex.
The worksite has also taken on scientific significance, allowing the collection of new data on the construction phases of the tiburium, a structure to which figures such as Bramante, Filarete and Leonardo da Vinci have contributed over the centuries. The analyses conducted during the work will be further investigated in the coming months, with the prospect of integrating the knowledge already acquired about the monument. It now remains to complete the last phase of the intervention, related to the dismantling of the large internal scaffolding, an operation that will continue in the coming months with completion expected by autumn.
“With this intervention we confirm the Veneranda Fabbrica’s commitment to protecting an extraordinary place,” explains Francesco Canali, Director of the Veneranda Fabbrica’s Construction Sites. “The main challenge was to set up the organization of the construction site under particularly complex conditions: unimaginable without the ability of the Fabbrica’s workers. On the conservation front, we worked on static consolidation and the care of the marbles. Cleaning the Candoglia marble is not an aesthetic fad, but an indispensable tool for understanding and counteracting the processes of degradation. Now the dismantling phase requires the same attention as the construction site itself: the removal of the scaffolding is, to all intents and purposes, a new construction site.”
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| Restoration of Milan Cathedral's tiburium completed after eighteen years of work |
The author of this article: Noemi Capoccia
Originaria di Lecce, classe 1995, ha conseguito la laurea presso l'Accademia di Belle Arti di Carrara nel 2021. Le sue passioni sono l'arte antica e l'archeologia. Dal 2024 lavora in Finestre sull'Arte.Warning: the translation into English of the original Italian article was created using automatic tools. We undertake to review all articles, but we do not guarantee the total absence of inaccuracies in the translation due to the program. You can find the original by clicking on the ITA button. If you find any mistake,please contact us.
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