What an impressive sight for Florentines and tourists alike when they looked up and saw a crane right by the central rose window (rosone) of Florence’s Duomo (see picture).
The men at work on the crane were taking down the stained-glass window depicting the Annunciation on cardboard by Lorenzo Ghiberti, part of a massive project started in the 70s by the Opera di Santa Maria del Fiore, to restore all the windows of the Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore. The restoration project is scheduled to be completed in the summer of 2015.
The cycle of stained-glass windows of Florence's Cathedral is among the most important in the world; some of the prominent artists who prepared the drawings include Agnolo Gaddi, Donatello, Paolo Uccello, Andrea del Castagno and especially Lorenzo Ghiberti, who worked on 36 of the 44 windows.
