Piazza del Duomo

Piazza del Duomo may refer to:

Milan

Milan (English /mᵻˈlæn/ or US /məˈlɑːn/;Lombard, Milanese variant: Milan [miˈlã]),Italian: Milano [miˈlaːno]), the second-most populous city in Italy, is the capital of Lombardy. The city proper has a population of about 1.3 million, while its urban area (the 5th-largest in the EU) comprises an estimated 5 million people (former Provinces of Milan and Monza-Brianza, with other Comuni included in the former Province of Varese). The enormous suburban sprawl that followed the post-war boom of the 1950s–1960s has resulted in a polycentric metropolitan area, known as Greater Milan, of 7 to 10 million people, stretching over the provinces of Milan, Bergamo, Como, Lecco, Lodi, Monza and Brianza, Pavia, Varese and Novara. The Milan metropolitan region is part of the so-called Blue Banana, the area of Europe with the highest population and industrial density. In terms of GDP, Milan has the third largest economy among EU cities (after London and Paris) and the largest among European non-capital cities.

Duomo

Duomo (English /ˈdwoʊmoʊ/, Italian: [ˈdwɔːmo]) is a term for an Italian cathedral church. The formal Italian word for a church that is now a cathedral is cattedrale; a duomo may be either a present or a former cathedral (the latter always in a town that no longer has a bishop nor therefore a cathedral, as for example Trevi). Some, like the Duomo of Monza, have never been cathedrals, although old and important.

Many people refer to particular churches simply as "Il Duomo" or "the duomo", without regard to the full proper name of the church.

Similar words exist in other languages: Dom (German), dóm (Hungarian & Slovakian), domkirke (Danish), dómkirkja (Icelandic), domo (Portuguese) domkyrka (Swedish), domkirke (Norwegian), doms (Latvian), toomkirik (Estonian), and tuomiokirkko (Finnish). Also in these languages the respective terms do not necessarily refer to a church functioning as a cathedral, but also to proto-cathedrals or simply prominent church buildings, which have never been a cathedral in the exact sense of that word. In German the term Dom became the synecdoche, used - pars pro toto - for most existing or former collegiate churches. Therefore the uniform translation of these terms into English as cathedrals may not always be appropriate and should be used on a contextual basis.

Piazza del Duomo, Milan

Piazza del Duomo ("Cathedral Square") is the main piazza (city square) of Milan, Italy. It is named after, and dominated by, the Milan Cathedral (the Duomo). The piazza marks the center of the city, both in a geographic sense and because of its importance from an artistic, cultural, and social point of view. Rectangular in shape, with an overall area of 17,000 m² (about 183,000 sq ft), the piazza includes some of the most important buildings of Milan (and Italy in general), as well some of the most prestigious commercial activities, and it is by far the foremost tourist attraction of the city.

While the piazza was originally created in the 14th century and has been gradually developing ever since (along with the Duomo, that took about six centuries to complete), its overall plan, in its current form, is largely due to architect Giuseppe Mengoni, and dates back to the second half of the 19th century. The monumental buildings that mark its sides, with the main exception of the Duomo itself and the Royal Palace, were introduced by Mengoni's design; the most notable of Mengoni's addition to the piazza is the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II arcade.