It is generally held against the Italians that they left so many of their churches for so long with unfinished faҫades and that they were never much concerned to have the faҫades bear a direct relation to the naves.

The best known examples of these peculiarities were the vast medieval cathedrals of Florence, Bologna and Milan. The later examples to be mentioned here will indicate that there were many churches of more recent periods for which new facades were supplied in the nineteenth century. Of the 363 Italian cathedral sites listed in J. W. Franklin’s The Cathedrals of Italy (Hastings House, New York, 1958) more than one third have been treated to major rebuilding, reconstruction, remodelling or such significant additions as new faҫades, since the seventeenth century.