Great Cathedral Mystery (2014)

From PBS The dome that crowns Florences great cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore the Duomo is a masterpiece of Renaissance ingenuity and an enduring source of mystery Still the largest masonry dome on earth it is taller than the Statue of Liberty and weighs as much as an average cruise ship Historians and engineers have long debated how its architect Filippo Brunelleschi kept the dome perfectly aligned and symmetrical as the sides rose and converged toward the center More than four million bricks could collapse at any moment and we still dont understand how Brunelleschi prevented it To test the latest theories a team of US bricklayers will help build an experimental miniDuomo using period tools and techniques