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

Florence was a wealthy medieval city on account of its textile trade, and Florentines of this time thought of themselves as a city similar to that of ancient Rome. They therefore decided that in order to compete with other Tuscan cities, they would build the grandest church in the regions. They wanted it to be able to fit all 100,000 people who lived in the city, which would have been an enormous structure in any period of history. Although they fell short of this goal (they were only able to fit about 30,000 people in the final church), they managed to create an extraordinary building for their great city.