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NOVA; Great Cathedral Mystery
12/11/2013
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- Series
- NOVA
- Program
- Great Cathedral Mystery
- Program Number
4105
- Series Description
Premiered March 1974 NOVA is a general-interest documentary series that addresses a single science issue each week. Billed as "science adventures for curious grown-ups" when it first aired in March, 1974, NOVA continues to offer an informative and entertaining approach to a challenging subject. 1996 marked NOVA's 23rd season, which makes it the longest-running science program on national television. It is also one of television's most acclaimed series, having won every major television award, most of them many times over. Series release date: 3/3/1974
- Program Description
The Duomo in Florence is a towering masterpiece of Renaissance ingenuity and an enduring source of mystery. A team of U.S. master bricklayers help build a unique experimental "mini-Duomo" using period tools and techniques. Will it stay intact during the final precarious stages of closing over the top of the dome?
The dome that crowns Florence’s 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 don’t understand how Brunelleschi prevented it. To test the latest theories, a team of U.S. bricklayers will help build an experimental “mini-Duomo” using period tools and techniques.
- Duration
00:56:46
- Asset Type
Broadcast program
- Media Type
Video
- Genres
- Documentary
- Topics
- Science
- Citation
- Chicago: “NOVA; Great Cathedral Mystery,” 12/11/2013, GBH Archives, accessed July 27, 2024, http://openvault.wgbh.org/catalog/V_9D2287C1D0F04422BD61DE0615CF88AD.
- MLA: “NOVA; Great Cathedral Mystery.” 12/11/2013. GBH Archives. Web. July 27, 2024. <http://openvault.wgbh.org/catalog/V_9D2287C1D0F04422BD61DE0615CF88AD>.
- APA: NOVA; Great Cathedral Mystery. Boston, MA: GBH Archives. Retrieved from http://openvault.wgbh.org/catalog/V_9D2287C1D0F04422BD61DE0615CF88AD