Description
The Madonnina is the gilded statue of the Virgin of the Assumption atop the highest spire of Milan Cathedral, 108.5 meters above the ground. It has shone over the square since 1774 and has become the symbol of the city: "in the shadow of the Madonnina" simply means in Milan.
The statue, 4.16 meters tall, was designed by Giuseppe Perego and made by the goldsmith Giuseppe Bini from sheets of gilded copper hammered over a walnut model and mounted on an iron frame, replaced with stainless steel in 1967. The halberd she holds is a lightning rod in disguise.
According to tradition, no building in Milan was to rise above her: so when skyscrapers did, a copy of her went up on the Pirellone, on Palazzo Lombardia and on the Isozaki Tower. During World War II she was covered with a sheet, so that she would not serve as a landmark for the bombers.
The statue, 4.16 meters tall, was designed by Giuseppe Perego and made by the goldsmith Giuseppe Bini from sheets of gilded copper hammered over a walnut model and mounted on an iron frame, replaced with stainless steel in 1967. The halberd she holds is a lightning rod in disguise.
According to tradition, no building in Milan was to rise above her: so when skyscrapers did, a copy of her went up on the Pirellone, on Palazzo Lombardia and on the Isozaki Tower. During World War II she was covered with a sheet, so that she would not serve as a landmark for the bombers.