Bologna Cathedral: The Metropolitan Church of San Pietro in Italy
Site at a Glance
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- Italy
- Primary era
- Early Modern
- External website
- Open
- Eras represented
- Medieval, Early Modern, Modern
- Civilizations
- Papal States
- Site type
- Religious
- Remains
- Cathedral
On this page21 sections
History
Bologna Cathedral, also known as the Cathedral of San Pietro, is the principal Catholic church of Bologna, Italy, whose historic structure developed from a tenth- or eleventh-century medieval rebuilding in the Lombard-Emilian Romanesque style. It is the mother church of the Archdiocese of Bologna and remains the city’s metropolitan church, the principal episcopal church of an ecclesiastical province with precedence over associated dioceses.
Origins and the Medieval Cathedral
An earlier church outside Bologna’s walls may have served as the city’s cathedral. Probably dating from the fourth century, it was originally dedicated to Saints Nabor and Felix before being destroyed by fire in 906. A replacement cathedral was then built within the surviving selenite walls, defensive walls made from a crystalline form of gypsum, near the former Porta San Cassiano. That entrance later became known as the Porta di San Pietro, or Porta di San Pietro e Paolo.
The new cathedral complex took shape broadly during the tenth or eleventh century. It stood beside an early Christian bell tower with a form associated with Ravenna and may have incorporated a pre-existing sixth-century cult complex. A nearby baptistery and the spiral bell tower have been interpreted as possible parts of a lost complex connected with Arian worship. Arianism was an early Christian movement that held Christ to be subordinate to God the Father, but the reconstruction of such a complex at Bologna remains hypothetical.
By the twelfth century, the church was approximately 57 meters long. A major fire on 1 August 1141 severely damaged it, leading to a rebuilding and enlargement commissioned from Magister Albertus. Pope Lucius III consecrated the renewed cathedral in 1184. The building then suffered further structural disasters when an earthquake brought down the roof in 1222 and another caused the choir roof to collapse in 1228. Master Tura directed restoration that was completed in 1234.
Further medieval work followed. Master Alberto added a rose window to the facade in 1252 and installed a new high altar in 1261. The expanding basilicas of the mendicant orders, San Domenico and San Francesco, encouraged later enlargements and alterations at San Pietro. In 1220, Master Ventura, a Campionese or Comacine master, began the marble Porta dei Leoni on the church’s southern side. Its sculptural decoration later attracted praise from Leandro Alberti and Giorgio Vasari, although the portal was eventually dismantled during rebuilding.
Renaissance Alterations and Episcopal Reform
A high portico was added to the facade in 1396 and rebuilt between 1467 and 1500. Around 1477, Francesco del Cossa and Ercole de’ Roberti painted the Garganelli Chapel. Their fresco cycle influenced Niccolò dell’Arca and Michelangelo, but later reconstruction destroyed it. A single fragment survives in the National Picture Gallery of Bologna.
The cathedral underwent a far-reaching internal reorganization from 1575 at the direction of Cardinal Gabriele Paleotti, a leading Catholic churchman of the Counter-Reformation. Domenico Tibaldi directed the initial phase, followed by Pietro Fiorini. The rebuilding was so extensive that the vaults collapsed in 1599. The program reflected the influence of Pellegrino Tibaldi and the ecclesiastical reforms associated with Saint Charles Borromeo, a cardinal and reforming archbishop who had studied in Bologna and served as papal legate there from 1560 to 1565.
The church’s institutional position also changed during this period. In 1582, Pope Gregory XIII raised Bologna to metropolitan status, making San Pietro the episcopal seat with jurisdictional precedence over the bishops and dioceses of the surrounding ecclesiastical province.
Seventeenth- and Eighteenth-Century Rebuilding
At the beginning of the seventeenth century, Giovanni Mazenta and Nicolò Donati redesigned the cathedral. They altered the apse and vaulting, replaced earlier forms with pointed arches, and partly demolished the side walls to create chapels and smaller sacred chambers. Nicolò Donati completed or refashioned the side aisles between 1613 and 1618, while Giovanni Battista Natali built the central nave between 1621 and 1622. These works substantially changed the original Romanesque interior.
The cathedral received its principal eighteenth-century appearance under Alfonso Torreggiani. Between 1743 and 1747, he reorganized the interior and, by order of Pope Benedict XIV, demolished the old portico, recovered or reconfigured two side chapels, and built a new facade. Francesco Tadolini rebuilt the unstable pediment in a classical form in 1776. Interior work continued until 1755, completing the transformation of the medieval church into a predominantly Baroque building with Neoclassical elements.
At the end of the nineteenth century, the construction of Via Indipendenza removed the open space formerly called Piazza San Pietro or Piazza Duomo in front of the cathedral. The church continues to function as a place of worship, with services on ordinary and feast days. Its bells are still rung manually by local bell ringers, especially during major solemnities. The eighteenth- and nineteenth-century tradition included a hereditary line of custodians from the Rasori family, and Angelo Rasori cast two of the cathedral’s bells.
The cathedral also preserves a museum and treasury containing religious furnishings, icons, paintings, and statues donated at different times. Among the associated gifts are works connected with Pope Benedict XIV and Pope Gregory XV.
Remains
The surviving cathedral combines a medieval brick structure with an eighteenth-century facade and interior. The rebuilt medieval church was approximately 70 meters long, 26.80 meters wide, and 23 meters high. Its Romanesque plan had three aisles, three apses corresponding to them, and a projecting facade divided into three principal parts. Pointed arches rested on polystyle piers, compound supports formed from several attached shafts or columns. Later rebuilding preserved the broad organization of the church while substantially altering its surfaces, vaults, chapels, and elevations.
Facade and Bell Towers
Baroque Facade
The present facade is built of red brick with marble decoration and is divided into two superimposed zones by a high cornice. It ends in a classical triangular pediment, rebuilt by Francesco Tadolini in 1776. Corinthian pilasters divide the lower zone into five sections. The outer sections correspond to the side aisles, while the three central sections contain portals opening toward the nave. The larger central portal bears a pediment with the arms of Benedict XIV, supported by two columns.
In the upper zone, a large central window is divided into three parts by Corinthian pilasters. A monumental Saint Peter by Agostino Corsini stands on the left, while Saint Paul, made by the Flemish sculptor Peter Verschaffelt and completed around 1750, stands on the right. The facade therefore presents the cathedral’s dedication through the paired figures of Peter and Paul, two principal figures of early Christianity.
Bell Tower
The cathedral’s later bell tower has a square plan, rises to approximately 70 meters, and is built in sagramatura masonry, a brick-finishing technique that produces a regular and refined surface. Its upper part contains three chambers. The highest is lit on each side by a quadrifora, a window divided into four openings. Construction was completed in 1227. A lead-covered wooden spire was added in 1254 and replaced with a masonry spire in 1426.
An earlier Christian bell tower survives inside the later structure. Its base is irregularly rounded and its summit is circular. It was never demolished and remains enclosed within the later tower, preserving a physical element of the cathedral complex’s early history.
Manual Bells
Four bells hang in the tower. The largest, known as La Nonna, weighs about 3,000 kilograms, measures 166.5 centimeters across, and is tuned to B2. Cesare Vernizzi of Bologna and Johannes Lamprecht of Switzerland installed it in 1595. The second bell, Mezzana or Mezzanone, weighs about 1,300 kilograms, has a diameter of 120.5 centimeters, and is tuned to E3. Pietro Francesco Censori installed it in 1623.
The third bell, Mezzanella, weighs approximately 850 kilograms, measures 107 centimeters across, and is tuned to F-sharp 3. Angelo Rasori made it in 1789. The smallest, Piccola, weighs about 570 kilograms, has a diameter of 95.3 centimeters, and is tuned to G-sharp 3. Rasori made it in 1788. Together the four bells form a 65-quintal concert in the Sesta, or major-sixth, arrangement. They are mounted on a large eighteenth-century wooden frame and remain entirely manual, without electrification, automation, or electronic reproduction.
Surviving Medieval Sculpture
Porta dei Leoni Remains
The demolished Porta dei Leoni was a marble portal on the southern side of the cathedral. Two red-marble lions stood on each side, supporting columns and arches, while four telamons, sculpted male figures used as architectural supports, represented a young man and an old man. The lunette, the crescent-shaped area beneath an arch, showed Christ with Saint Peter on the right and Saint Paul on the left.
One telamon with its twisted column survives in the baptistery chapel. Two of the former lions now support holy-water basins inside the cathedral. Near one exit stands a seated lioness nursing two cubs, carved from red Verona marble and possibly also originating from the former portal.
Nave, Chapels, and Counterfacade
Main Interior
The interior measures approximately 89.60 meters in length and 42.89 meters in width. A barrel vault, a continuous semicircular or segmental vault, covers the church. The central nave is about 25 meters wide, while the two side aisles are slightly more than 5 meters wide. Seven large windows illuminate the interior, with three in each side wall and one in the counterfacade. Torreggiani added four choir lofts in 1755, and the richly finished floor was laid between 1902 and 1905 to a design by Silvio Gordini.
Torreggiani designed the counterfacade between 1743 and 1747. Its elongated portal is decorated with statues by Lorenzino del Mazza, while four niches contain representations of the Doctors of the Church, Christian theologians recognized for the exceptional importance of their teaching and writings. Gifts associated with Benedict XIV appear above the door and in the side niches. Two ancient lion-supported holy-water basins flank the main entrance.
Five side chapels occupy each side of the nave. Ambulatory spaces separate them, and choir lofts above the spaces open toward the central nave. Their decoration records the cathedral’s changing artistic character from the Renaissance and Baroque periods to later nineteenth- and twentieth-century interventions.
Left-Side Chapels
The Baptistery Chapel contains the surviving twisted column from the Porta dei Leoni. Its large marble baptismal basin was made by Ferdinand de Saint-Urbain in 1698. The chapel has no altar, and its rear wall displays Ercole Graziani’s Baptism of Christ within an architectural illusion painted by Stefano Orlandi in the mid-eighteenth century.
The Chapel of the Sacred Heart has stucco decoration by Ferdinando Rossi and a 1925 altarpiece by Giuseppe Cassioli. It shows Christ enthroned and displaying the Sacred Heart to Saints Margaret Mary Alacoque and Gertrude. The Chapel of the Blessed Sacrament, also called the Lambertini Chapel, was remodeled by Torreggiani around 1731 with marble and bronze work. Its central altarpiece, made by Donato Creti in 1737, represents Saint Ignatius of Loyola.
The Chapel of the Relics contains a marble altarpiece by Pietro Fiorini, made between the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, with two marble angels attributed to Lazzaro Casario. A large niche holds the relics of Cardinal Paleotti beneath a replica of a Marian image venerated at San Lorenzo in Damaso in Rome. Carlo Boldi decorated the chapel in 1918, and Ferdinando Rossi added polychrome stucco in 1925.
The Chapel of Sant’Ambrogio contains an eighteenth-century altarpiece by Giuseppe Marchesi, known as Sansone, depicting Saint Ambrose. Luigi Samoggia enclosed the painting within an architectural composition in 1883. The Chapel of Blessed Nicolò Albergati has a balustrade and architectural perspective by Stefano Orlandi, dating from about 1750, together with Antonio Rossi’s 1748 depiction of Albergati’s episcopal consecration. Opposite it stands Alfonso Lombardi’s terracotta Lamentation over the Dead Christ, modeled between 1522 and 1526 and installed in the chapel in 1992.
Right-Side Chapels
The Chapel of Saint Anne contains a polychrome-marble perspective by Davide Venturi from 1906. Its central shrine holds a gilded copper and enamel relic of Saint Anne, given by King Henry IV of England to Cardinal Nicolò Albergati. A small dome above the shrine contains a fresco by Cesare Mauro Trebbi.
The Chapel of Saint Apollinaris has a Neoclassical altar and altarpiece by Angelo Venturoli, with decoration by Flaminio Minozzi. Ercole Graziani the Younger’s 1737 altarpiece represents Saint Apollinaris being consecrated bishop by Saint Peter. The Chapel of Saint Roch has decoration by Giuseppe Antonio Ambrosi and an altar designed by Camillo Rusconi. Its central altarpiece, attributed to Marcantonio Franceschini and painted in 1727–1728, shows the Holy Family with Saints Roch and James the Greater. Franceschini also painted Saints Petronius and Pancratius in the adjoining arch, while Vittorio Bigari’s 1730 dome fresco depicts Saint Peter appearing to Pope Celestine I and leading him to select Saint Petronius as bishop of Bologna.
The Chapel of Saint Charles Borromeo contains an illusionistic architectural setting by Luigi Samoggia from 1883 and Donato Creti’s 1740 altarpiece of Saint Charles distributing alms. At the rear of the side aisles, two doors lead out of the church. Gabriele Brunelli’s memorial to Pope Gregory XV Ludovisi is on the left door, while the right bears a gilded medallion by Giuseppe Maria Mazza from the early eighteenth century. A group of medium-sized Nativity statues was made by Cesarino Vincenzi in the 1940s.
Presbytery and Crypt
Presbytery
The presbytery, the area reserved for the clergy around the high altar, occupies the entire tribune and is raised several steps above the rest of the church. Domenico Tibaldi designed it as a square-plan space covered by a cross vault, a vault formed by the intersection of two vaults. It opens toward two side apses and a semicircular main apse.
Two angels above the triumphal arch hold the arms of Pope Gregory XV. The main chapel contains Prospero Fontana’s 1579 fresco of the Eternal Father, together with a late-sixteenth- or early-seventeenth-century fresco by Cesare Fiorini and Cesare Aretusi showing Christ giving the symbolic keys to Saint Peter. Ludovico Carracci’s 1619 fresco of the Annunciation completes the principal painted decoration. The polychrome-marble high altar was made by Alfonso Torreggiani and is surmounted by a twelfth-century Romanesque cedar-wood Crucifixion showing Christ on the cross with the Magdalene and Saint John the Evangelist.
Crypt
The crypt lies beneath the main chapel and forms its base. It contains Paolo Gualandi’s modern bronze Risen Christ, Gian Giacomo Sementi’s Saint Ursula from the first half of the seventeenth century, Gian Pietro Cavazzoni Zanotti’s mid-eighteenth-century Resurrection of the Flesh, and a Pietà from the beginning of the sixteenth century.
The crypt also contains the tomb of Giovanni Acquaderni, who founded the Italian Catholic Youth Society with Mario Fani. The organization later became Italian Catholic Action, giving the burial place a connection with the development of organized Italian Catholic youth movements.
Sacristies and Musical Heritage
Sacristy Collections
Behind the bell tower are the sacristy and chapter sacristy. The sacristy contains Giovan Luigi Valesio’s Christ Bound to the Column, Guido Aspertini’s Head of Christ Crowned with Thorns and Two Angel Heads, Girolamo Negri’s Saint Peter Freed from Prison, and Elisabetta Sirani’s The Virgin and Child in Glory with Saints Dominic and Anthony from 1664–1665. It also preserves Bartolomeo Ramenghi’s 1522 Crucifixion with Saints Peter, Mary Magdalene and James, Giulio Morina’s 1593 Blessed Ludovico Morbioli, and Giovanni Maria Tamburini’s 1640 fresco of Pope Gregory XIII praying before the Pietà in the presence of Saint Roch.
At the center of the sacristy vault is Giovanni Francesco Spini’s 1680 painting of Saint Peter in Glory. The chapter sacristy contains Ludovico Carracci’s 1616 Saint Peter Weeping before the Virgin, four mid-eighteenth-century oval paintings of Saints Peter, Paul, Zama, and Petronius by Ercole Graziani the Younger, a nineteenth-century bust of Saint Peter, and a seventeenth-century gilded-bronze Crucifix. Antique vestments and Roman tapestries based on designs by Anton Raphael Mengs, donated by Benedict XIV, are also preserved there.
Pipe Organs
Bologna Cathedral has three pipe organs. The former main organ was built by Giuseppe Rotelli between 1925 and 1929. Although it has been out of use since 1995, its sound-producing material remains. The instrument has 50 stops, or selectable groups of pipes, on three manuals and a pedalboard. Its sections are distributed among the three apses and the galleries near the presbytery. It incorporates material from organs built by Vincenzo Sormani and Giovanni Battista Greppi in 1637–1641, and by Giuseppe, Filippo, and Francesco Gatti in 1748–1752 and 1756–1757.
The present main organ was built by Paccagnella between 1997 and 2000 using material from Laukhuff. It has 54 stops on three manuals and a pedalboard, with mechanical action for the keyboards and pedals and servo-assisted stop controls. The instrument stands in a single case on the floor beneath the arch between the nave and the ambulatory beside the second and third side chapels.
The crypt organ was built by Antonio Bartolotti in 1785. It stands on the floor of the left transept and has eight stops on one manual with a lectern-style pedalboard. Together with the manually operated bells, these instruments preserve the cathedral’s continuing musical and liturgical functions alongside its accumulated medieval, Renaissance, Baroque, and modern fabric.
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