La Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore

Lion Column of the Duomo

Karen Brubaker

Behind Piazza Vecchia (or south) is the beautiful church of Santa Maria Maggiore built on the place of a smaller church from around 774 A.D. Building began in 1137 projected to be almost in the form of an elongated Greek cross. The roof is covered with stone ardesia shingles just like the houses way up in the local mountains. The sides are covered in red, white and black marble.

The portal has all kinds of figures of heads, animals and warriors from the Lombard League that alternate with decorative geometric elements. Above the arc is a statue of Saint Alessandro on horse and Saints Barnaba and Vincenzo. Above this is a statue of the Madonna with saints. Two dark red marble lions hold up columns at the entrance.

As you enter on the right there are frescos of The Last Supper and the story of St. Eligio and a tapestry with Moses and many other fine tapestries, paintings and decorations. The Confessional of Andrea Fantoni is incredibly carved out of wood. There are four wood incised panoramas with an infinite number of colors and grains of wood at the front of the church but they are kept covered under a wood covering to protect them yet they can still be seen by tipping the custodian. A famous organ is also at the front and can be heard during concerts in the church.

Going back out on the right toward piazza dell'Ateneo there are some medieval iron metal bars in the walls which were used to measure textiles and material in the times of the open markets when there were no units of measure.