Ancient animal tracks discovered on terracotta tiles used to cover Florence’s most famous church

A specialised team repairs and replaces damaged tiles on the south cupola of Santa Maria del Fiore cathedral.

Credit: Claudio Giovannini/Opera di Santa Maria del Fiore

The uninformed observer might wonder how even a cat, let alone a dog or deer, could clamber to the top reaches of the 370-foot dome of Florence’s most famous church.

Yet when workmen began restoration work on the city’s Santa Maria del Fiore cathedral, they discovered intriguing sets of paw and hoof prints on its ancient terracotta tiles.

Experts who have analysed them say they were left not by modern day four-legged visitors, but by animals who traipsed across the clay tiles as they were laid out to dry in the sun before being laid on the dome centuries ago.

The prints were discovered during winter maintenance by a team of specialised masons, restorers and technicians who corded up to repair and replace damaged tiles on the south cupola of Santa Maria del Fiore cathedral.

While harnessed high atop the famous Renaissance church, they found tiles showing paw prints of dogs and cats, and tracks identified as belonging to fox, marten and deer. There were also many species of birds and raptors.  

Florence, view from the Giotto Tower with the Brunelleschi dome in foreground

Credit: GETTY

The imprints were likely made on the tiles as they lay drying in the sun before being kiln fired in Impruneta, a small Tuscan town between Florence and Greve in Chianti. The town has been famed since the 11th century for terracotta and is still producing it today.

“I was amazed when the technicians showed me their photos,” said Ambra Nepi, spokesperson for the institute that manages the cathedral. “It is a marvellous hidden world up there, that from down below in the square you do not see.”

Animal tracks found on Florence Dome tiles.

Credit: Opera di Santa Maria del Fiore

Not just animals left a trace. Some tiles were branded with a unique cross, while others showed dates and the names of artisans, said architect Samuele Caciagli, a director of the restoration project.

Upon lifting off the cap of the south cupola, the team found a Lira coin dated 1956. It either fell from a worker’s pocket or was left purposefully to mark the year the area was last systematically restored.

“We have known there are these traces of man and animal there, “ Mr Caciagli told the Telegraph. “But every time we do this continual maintenance and restoration, we discover another life lived, another page from our history book, like crumbs left by Hansel and Gretel allowing us to retrace the monument’s past.”

Completed in 1436, the monumental cupola project by Filippo Brunelleschi remains the largest brick dome ever constructed, its curved engineering a testament to the genius of man regarded as one of the first modern engineers.

Historians describe Brunelleschi as obsessively hands-on, personally choosing stone and marble from local quarries and carefully overseeing tile and brick production. “Brunelleschi was a very intelligent man who was very careful about choosing his materials – a master in quality control  – and this is one of the great secrets of the cupola’s achievement,” explained Mr Caciagli.

The original terracotta tiles date back to 1419, but the animal tracks have not yet been precisely dated.  

“Certainly, there are ancient animal tracks on some of the original tiles, but there are traces from all periods, because the terracotta drying process is still basically the same today as it was 600 years ago,” said Mr Caciagli.