Santa Maria Maggiore. Bergamo. Lombardy, Italy

According to popular tradition, the church was built in fulfillment of a vow made to the Madonna in 1133 by the people of Bergamo to protect Bergamo from the plague that was ravaging northern Italy. On August 15, 1137, the Bishop of Bergamo Gregorio blessed the foundation stone of the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore, built on the site of an earlier 8th-century church dedicated to the Virgin Mary. Since then, the basilica has stood in the heart of the Upper Town, between Piazza Vecchia and Piazza Rosate, the most noble part of historic Bergamo, surrounded by Venetian walls. The church was originally built in Romanesque style. In 1351-53, Giovanni da Campione undertook a Gothic reconstruction of the basilica with the creation of a portal onto Piazza Vecchia in polychrome marble. Between 1576 and 1580, the interior of the church was transformed, with the removal of all side altars and all fresco paintings. The result of this transformation is almost literally the same as what we see today. The interior retains the original Romanesque Greek cross plan with a nave and two aisles separated by piers and ending in an apse, but the decoration is largely from the 17th-century Baroque reconstruction.

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Inside the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore there is an indescribable riot of stucco, frescoes, tapestries... The presbytery contains six bronze candelabra from 1597 and a wooden choir designed by Bernardo Zenale and Andrea Previtali. The reliefs with biblical stories were made in 1524-1555 based on sketches by Lorenzo Lotto. The polychrome effect is due to the use of different types of wood. On the balustrade of the presbytery is a 14th-century crucifix. In the left nave is a Baroque confessional carved by Andrea Fantoni in 1704. Next to the confessional is the tomb of one of the most famous people of Bergamo of all time, the composer Gaetano Donizetti by Vincenzo Vela (1855). The walls are hung with tapestries, partly executed in Florence (1583-86) to designs by Alessandro Allori, and partly of Flemish manufacture. Above the Crucifixion tapestry (executed in Antwerp from cartoons by Ludwig van Schoor, 1698) is a painting by Luca Giordano depicting the Crossing of the Red Sea (1691).