The ancient Lombard city of Pavia lies on the Ticino River near its confluence with the Po. Pavia is about twenty miles south of Milan. A long time ago, Pavia was the capital of Lombardy. Today it is a bit of a back water, but with some marvelous structures, including a covered bridge over the Ticino that was originally from the 1300s, but was rebuilt after being destroyed in the second world war. The Renaissance cathedral, the Duomo di Pavia, boasts a vast brick and masonry dome, one of the world’s largest. The interior of the dome is shown in this image.

I photographed the dome with my camera on a tripod, using my 16mm rectilinear fisheye lens, and combining five manually bracketing captures. The result, when viewed head-on and without the appearance of depth and height, reminds me a bit of a mandala.

Click here for more domes, and here for Mandahlia!