|
|
|
Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore - Cittą Alta (Upper Town )Situated in the heart of the upper town, Basilica di S. Maria Maggiore is considered the most important monument of the town. The collocation itself, in the centre of the built-up area, underlines the importance of this building. Piazza Duomo ( Dome Square ) has been for a long time, until the building of the close Piazza Vecchia ( Old Square ), the fulcrum of the civil and religious life of the town. The Duomo, the Basilica and the Palazzo della Ragione (the ancient municipality building) face on it. Built in XII, as a vow to the Virgin, the basilica conserved at the outside the original Romanic structure. The ground plan is in shape of a Greek cross, but the interior, modified in ‘500 and in ‘600, is sumptuous. Many artists worked for its realization: from Lombardy, Venice, Tuscany and foreign artists. There are two entrances to the basilica decorated with precious porches of polychrome marbles by Giovanni da Campione (1353-60). The interior is rich of very valuable works. The inlays of the wooden choir and the marquetries of the iconostasis that represent biblical stories, were executed between the 1524 and the 1555 on the drawings of Lorenzo Lotto, by the Master G.F. Capoferri and G. Belli: the different chromatic types are due to the different kind of wood, while the color shades and the deepness of the image are obtained with herbs infusions and the use of hot sand.
In the transept there are frescoes of the fourteen century by
an unknown author from the Lombardy school (Storie
di S.Egidio – “S.Egidio histories”, l’Ultima
cena, “Last supper”, L’Albero di
S.Bonaventura, “Saint Bonaventura’s tree”).
The great Crucifix that hangs on the balustrade
of the presbytery is a work by an unknown artist as
well. Beautiful Florentine and Flemish tapestries
decorate the walls of the basilica. At the end of
the nave, there are the monuments of the
famous compositor Gaetano Donizetti and of
his Master Simone Mayr. In the left aisle,
the precious baroque confessional by Andrea
Fantoni (1704 – 1705) presents an apology of the
confession.
Piazza Duomo - Sacristy tel. 035/22.33.27. Free entrance
- Bergamo tourist guides associations: Text and Photos (c) courtesy of Provincia di Bergamo – Settore cultura, sport e turismo
Bergamo Alta: |
(c) 1997-2008 E. Massetti
TangoItalia - Food Wine Travel in Italy - Home
