The Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore in Florence, Italy, has a very large dome on top. Building this dome was a difficult project. No one knew how to do it. So for many years the cathedral didn’t have a dome. Filippo Brunelleschi found a way to solve this problem. He didn’t follow old ways of building. He relied on his own ideas. He built an inner dome and an outer dome. He used two materials: stone and brick. He also found a way to lift things high up. He invented his own machine to do this.