Filippo Brunelleschi was an Italian architect and engineer from Florence, Italy in the 15th century. He is famous for designing and building the dome of the Florence Cathedral, known as the Duomo, which had stumped architects for over 100 years because of its size and structural challenges. Brunelleschi developed innovative new building techniques and machines to lift the materials to complete the massive dome, which was over 100 meters tall. He was the first architect to receive a patent to protect his novel engineering ideas. The dome took over 30 years to complete and showed Brunelleschi's ability to think creatively and solve complex architectural problems.