Duomo vecchio: Brescia’s Romanesque Winter Co-Cathedral
Site at a Glance
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- Italy
- Primary era
- Medieval
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- Open
- Eras represented
- Classical, Medieval, Early Modern
- Civilizations
- Byzantine, Holy Roman Empire, Lombard, Roman, Venetian
- Site type
- Religious
- Remains
- Cathedral
On this page28 sections
History
Duomo vecchio, also known as La Rotonda, is a Roman Catholic co-cathedral in Brescia, Italy, built by the medieval Christian community as a Romanesque church from the eleventh century. It shares the cathedral title with the adjacent Duomo nuovo and is dedicated to the Assumption of the Virgin Mary. Traditionally, Duomo vecchio served as Brescia’s winter cathedral, while the newer cathedral served as the summer cathedral. Its history incorporates Roman structures, an early Christian basilica, the present Romanesque rotunda, and successive Gothic, Renaissance, Baroque, and modern interventions.
Roman and Early Christian Predecessors
Roman rooms and structures lie beneath the church. They may have belonged to a bath complex used between the first and third centuries AD. Archaeological work in the late nineteenth century and further investigations during the twentieth century identified these remains, together with a cardo, a principal north-south street in a Roman town, running west of the structures.
An early Christian basilica called Santa Maria Maggiore de Dom was probably built in the seventh century, around the same period as the nearby Basilica of San Pietro de Dom. The church was probably destroyed or severely damaged by the fire that devastated Brescia in 1095. Archaeological evidence indicates that work on the present cathedral had already started before the fire, so the disaster confirmed the earlier basilica’s fate rather than beginning the cathedral project. Santa Maria Maggiore survived mainly in its crypt, while portions of its floor mosaics also remained beneath the later building.
The Romanesque Cathedral
The present cathedral was constructed from the eleventh century and was probably complete during the first half of the twelfth century. Its central body is a rotunda, a centrally planned circular building, and its substantial masonry, round arches, thick walls, and restrained geometric design place it within Lombard Romanesque architecture. The building became the principal medieval church on the site while retaining physical traces of the earlier basilica below and within its floors.
In the late thirteenth century, Berardo Maggi, bishop of Brescia and the city’s first lord, enlarged the presbytery, the part of a church reserved for the altar and clergy, and commissioned new interior decoration. The exact extent of this campaign remains uncertain. It may have included the ambulatory vaults alone, or the walls and central dome as well.
Berardo Maggi held office from 1275 to 1308 and combined ecclesiastical authority with civic rule. His later tomb preserves the memory of the Peace of Berardo Maggi, the agreement he imposed in 1298 between Brescia’s Guelph and Ghibelline factions. These were rival political groups in medieval Italy, broadly associated with papal and imperial loyalties, though their local alliances varied.
Late Medieval and Renaissance Expansion
Between the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries, Bernardino da Martinengo led a major enlargement eastward. He extended the presbytery, added the transept, the cross-arm projecting from the main axis of a church, and built the Chapel of the Holy Crosses in 1495 on the site of the former sacristy. Filippo Grassi also took part in the campaign. Gasparo Cairano carved the presbytery’s marble keystones, while Vincenzo Civerchio painted scenes from the life of the Virgin that were later lost.
The sack of Brescia by the army of Gaston de Foix-Nemours in 1512 prompted the city authorities to intensify efforts to embellish the cathedral. Giovanni da Pinerolo’s organ was installed in 1518, then replaced in 1536 by the monumental instrument made by Giangiacomo Antegnati. The later history of the organ continued to preserve parts of this Renaissance instrument, even after its mechanism was rebuilt.
From 1571, Giovanni Maria Piantavigna reorganized the interior according to Counter-Reformation principles. The Counter-Reformation was the Catholic Church’s program of reform and reaffirmation after the Protestant Reformation. Piantavigna built the Chapel of Santa Justina on the right side of the transept, remodelled the Chapel of the Holy Crosses, commissioned new transept paintings from Tommaso Sandrino and Francesco Giugno, and moved the cathedral’s entrance to its present position. Santa Justina’s chapel was later rededicated as the Chapel of the Blessed Sacrament.
The Chapel of the Holy Crosses received a further definitive restoration in the early seventeenth century. Its treasury was administered and protected by the Custodians of the Holy Crosses, a historic company officially founded in 1520. Among its four important pieces is the Insigne Relic, made up of three fragments identified as part of the True Cross, the Christian relic traditionally associated with the cross on which Jesus was crucified.
Changes after the Demolition of San Pietro de Dom
The Basilica of San Pietro de Dom was demolished in 1601. Paintings commissioned from Moretto and Romanino for its Chapel of the Blessed Sacrament were transferred to Duomo vecchio. Some remained in the chapel, while two Romanino canvases were placed temporarily in the apse. The demolition also altered the relationship between the two neighbouring cathedral churches and brought additional works and devotional furnishings into the older building.
The original campanile above the cathedral entrance collapsed in 1708 after the portal had been enlarged. A much smaller replacement bell tower was built during the eighteenth century. Francesco Maffei’s painting of 1656, The Translation of the Bodies of Bishops Dominatore, Paolo, and Anastasio, shows the earlier tower and gives an approximate, partly concealed view of San Pietro de Dom before its demolition.
Restoration, Archaeology, and Recent Conservation
Luigi Arcioni directed a major restoration and archaeological campaign in the late nineteenth century. The work removed later accretions, repaired the building, reconstructed the lowered Romanesque entrance, reopened the ancient crypt of San Filastrio, and recovered the foundations of Santa Maria Maggiore. Its perimeter was marked in the floor, and sections of the earlier church’s mosaics were exposed. The intervention also reorganized the liturgical furnishings and emphasized Berardo Maggi’s tomb. After the Duomo nuovo assumed the role of city cathedral, the restoration helped establish Duomo vecchio partly as a place preserving art and civic history.
At the end of the twentieth century, the transept frescoes were cleaned and restored, particularly in response to persistent damp. Heavy rains in early 2010 flooded the crypt, leaving approximately ten centimetres of water there for several weeks. Insulation work on the underground walls followed in summer 2010.
Mascioni restored the organ between 2017 and October 2023, and its return was marked by a concert on 19 November 2023. In August that year, a sixteenth-century note written in the Lombard language and attributed to the craftsman Passino da Passirano was found inside the instrument. Romanino’s painted organ doors, showing Stories of the Virgin, were restored and returned to the Duomo nuovo in 2023.
The cathedral also contains burials associated with the bishops of Brescia Dominatore, Saint Paolo III, Saint Attanasio da Brescia, Domenico, Berardo Maggi, Lamberto Balduino della Cecca, Domenico de Dominici, Domenico Bollani, Giovanni Dolfin, Gianfrancesco Morosini, Vincenzo Giustiniani, and Marco Morosini. Their episcopal terms range from the late thirteenth to the seventeenth century, including Berardo Maggi from 1275 to 1308, Lamberto Balduino della Cecca from 1344 to 1349, Domenico de Dominici from 1464 to 1478, Domenico Bollani from 1559 to 1579, Giovanni Dolfin from 1579 to 1584, Gianfrancesco Morosini from 1585 to 1596, Vincenzo Giustiniani from 1633 to 1645, and Marco Morosini from 1645 to 1654.
Remains
Duomo vecchio retains a large cylindrical Romanesque core built from regular blocks of local medolo limestone and Botticino marble. The original central structure surrounds the circular Platea of Santa Maria, while the late fifteenth-century presbytery and apse and the sixteenth-century transept extend the building eastward. The surviving complex therefore combines a central medieval rotunda with later architectural additions, archaeological layers, chapels, monuments, and decorated spaces.
Exterior and Entrances
Cylindrical Romanesque Body
The exterior walls are organized by round-arched single-light windows on three levels. Openings occur in the ambulatory walls, at the base of the central cylinder, and in a dense upper zone beneath the roof. On the north, south, and east sides, some upper windows are replaced by circular oculi, or round openings. The upper windows have triple inward splaying, and thin pilasters divide the central cylinder at regular intervals. A terracotta saw-tooth frieze with small arches crowns the structure. Several large lower windows have reconstructed masonry halos from Arcioni’s rebuilding of openings enlarged during the late sixteenth century.
Portal and Former Campanile
The present entrance is aligned with the presbytery. It has a restrained Baroque marble portal with a semicircular pediment and a crowning upper moulding called a cimasa. Opened in 1571, it replaced an earlier entrance that had become buried, although the older opening remains visible from inside. Two Romanesque-columned stairways beside the portal once led to the bell tower.
A lowered area beside the cathedral reproduces the original level of the piazza when the church was built. It exposes one entrance of the original narthex, an entrance hall or vestibule, formed from alternating stone wedge-shaped blocks and bricks. The other symmetrically positioned entrance remains beneath the piazza. Representations by Francesco Maffei and a miniature on the cover of the 1588 Estimo della città di Brescia show the former Romanesque campanile as similar to the tower of San Giorgio but considerably taller. The rear of the church displays the later replacement campanile, the left side of the transept, the rear of the Chapel of the Holy Crosses, the Chapel of the Blessed Sacrament, and two small domes with lanterns.
Central Interior and Earlier Basilica
Platea and Ambulatory
The interior unfolds across several levels. From the raised entrance, Piantavigna’s stairways descend on both sides to the circular ambulatory, a passage running around the central and eastern parts of the church. The ambulatory surrounds the Platea of Santa Maria, the central worship space at the lowest level above the crypt. Eight substantial trapezoidal pillars and round arches separate the passage from the central area and support the large dome.
Piantavigna altered this arrangement in 1571 by raising the ambulatory floor to the level of the new entrance and placing stairways on both sides to the earlier level. Modern metal stairs now descend from the ambulatory to the platea. The central space contains eight perimeter pillars, large arches, ten single-light windows, and the dome. Opposite the presbytery, the ancient entrance arch survives. Its two doors were formerly linked by a narthex, which was later converted into a baptistery and contains a fifteenth-century marble font.
Santa Maria Maggiore Remains
The foundations of Santa Maria Maggiore de Dom, exposed during the excavations of 1894, are marked across the platea with dark floor tiles. Their relatively thin construction and limited buttressing indicate a simple single-nave basilica with an open timber roof. Fragments of geometric floor mosaics from the earlier church, dating from the fifth or sixth century, remain beneath the modern metal stairs. Further mosaics, including sixth-century work, can be seen beneath protective glass in the presbytery and along the transept. Some belonged to Santa Maria Maggiore, while others are Roman in date.
Crypt of San Filastrio
Structure and Reused Materials
Stairs beside the steps to the presbytery lead to the crypt of San Filastrio. The underground church has three aisles, each divided into four bays, separated by two colonnades and covered by groin vaults. A groin vault is formed by the intersection of two barrel vaults. The aisles terminate in three apses, the curved ends of the sanctuary spaces, while rectangular niches and recesses articulate the walls. At the front, the plan expands from three aisles to five.
The crypt dates at least from the sixth century, although its arrangement was probably revised in the eighth century. Its perimeter walls belong to the sixth-century phase, while the groin vaults and present column positions date at least from the eighth century. Many columns and capitals are reused Roman elements, or spolia, architectural pieces taken from older buildings. Other capitals are Byzantine, dating from the eighth or ninth century, and generally imitate Roman Corinthian forms. Paired columns and related capital designs create a strongly symmetrical arrangement.
Painted Decoration
A severely faded apse fresco may depict Christ in glory among angels and Saints Filastrius and Apollonius. Its surviving details include cornices, a vase with vegetation, and a curtain motif, probably painted in the eleventh or twelfth century. Better-preserved paintings of Saints Apollonius, Gaudentius, Filastrius, and the Archangel Michael occupy the vault surfaces of the last central bay.
Presbytery and High Altar
Vaults and Apse
The presbytery combines the earlier vault at the centre of the transept with the later choir and apse. The older section has a large frescoed groin vault. The late fifteenth-century choir consists of a square bay with a groin vault and a tall polygonal apse covered by an umbrella-like vault. Two tall biforium windows, each a two-light opening divided by a central support, illuminate the apse, whose ribs carry vegetal decoration.
The older vault contains roundels with the symbols of the four Evangelists, the human or angelic figure for Matthew, the lion for Mark, the ox for Luke, and the eagle for John. Its lunettes contain an Archangel and the Tree of Life, while geometric motifs, rosettes, cornices, and decorated ribs complete the painted scheme. The keystone carries the Agnus Dei, the Lamb of God, a Christian image associated with Jesus Christ and sacrifice. The lunette facing the platea shows the praying Virgin while angels cense her, opposite a blessing Christ. Both scenes have strongly Byzantine features. Fragments of an earlier row of angels in round framed panels survive beneath later foliage on the arch leading to the expanded presbytery. The vault paintings were uncovered and restored in 1957.
Altar, Paintings, and Choir Stalls
The high altar is made from red Verona marble. It was probably created in the late thirteenth century, perhaps during Berardo Maggi’s episcopate, and was consecrated in 1342. Above it hangs Moretto’s large Assumption of the Virgin, painted between 1524 and 1526 in a Renaissance gilded wooden frame. Beneath the altarpiece is a marble bust of Pope Alexander VIII, made by Orazio Marinali in 1690. Alexander VIII had been a cardinal in Brescia from 1664 to 1674.
Two Romanino paintings flank the altarpiece, The Fall of Manna in the Desert and Water Flowing from the Rock. They came from the former Basilica of San Pietro de Dom and are temporarily placed in the apse. The choir stalls were begun by Antonio da Soresina in 1524 and continued through 1529. Giovanni Maria Zampedris da Martinengo completed them in 1534 from a design by Stefano Lamberti.
Organ
The present organ is by the Serassi brothers, opus 416, built in two phases between 1824 and 1826 and between 1829 and 1832. It reuses the sound-producing material and case of Giangiacomo Antegnati’s 1536 instrument. The Renaissance-style case is attributed to Battista Piantavigna of Bologna. Romanino’s painted doors, showing Stories of the Virgin, are now preserved in the Duomo nuovo after their restoration and return there in 2023.
Transepts and Chapels
Right Transept and Chapel of the Blessed Sacrament
The right transept belongs to the sixteenth-century enlargement but has acquired its present appearance through repeated restoration. Its early seventeenth-century frescoes are by Tommaso Sandrini and Francesco Giugno. Damp has damaged these paintings and revealed fragments of an earlier sixteenth-century decorative layer. A probably late seventeenth-century gilded wooden Baroque altar also stands in the transept.
The Chapel of the Blessed Sacrament was built as the Chapel of Santa Justina in 1572 and received its later dedication after the demolition of San Pietro de Dom. It has a square plan and a small dome. Giovanni and Carlo Carra made its marble altar, stone sculpture, and entrance balustrades in the early seventeenth century, while Andrea Colomba produced the dome’s stucco decoration in 1596.
The chapel’s altarpiece is a late fifteenth-century fresco of the Flagellation of Christ, attributed to Paolo Caylina the Elder. It was detached in 1603 from the passage that linked Duomo vecchio with San Pietro de Dom. Moretto’s paintings include Elijah Comforted by the Angel, The Feast of the Paschal Lamb, and the Evangelists Mark and Luke. Francesco Barbieri of Legnago painted the mid-seventeenth-century Evangelists Matthew and John beside the balustrade.
Left Transept and Chapel of the Holy Crosses
The left transept retains the arrangement established by Piantavigna in 1571. Its Sandrini and Giugno frescoes are better preserved than those on the opposite side. The transept contains the early seventeenth-century late-Mannerist monument to Cardinal Francesco Morosini, bishop of Brescia from 1585 to 1596, made by Antonio Carra. It also holds an early sixteenth-century funerary slab for Battista L. and Moretto’s Melchizedek Offering Bread and Wine to the Patriarch Abraham, produced with Luca Mombello and transferred from San Pietro de Dom.
Bernardino da Martinengo built the Chapel of the Holy Crosses in 1495. Its present appearance partly reflects the 1596 remodelling, including Andrea Colomba’s dome stuccoes. Five paintings were planned in 1605, but two were completed: Grazio Cossali’s 1606 Apparition of the Cross to Constantine and Antonio Gandino’s contemporary Donation of Namo of Bavaria. The chapel has a valuable marble altar and balustrade decorated with Botticino-marble putti by Carlo Carra. An iron-gilt chest houses its treasury, including the three fragments identified as part of the True Cross.
Ambulatory Monuments and Artworks
Domenico de Dominici and the Guardian Angel
The left ambulatory contains the wall-mounted funerary monument of Domenico de Dominici, bishop of Brescia from 1464 to 1478. Its Renaissance design uses flanking pilasters with candelabra, festoons, round panels containing profile busts of ancient figures, an architrave, and a triangular pediment. A reclining effigy represents the bishop, while the long Latin inscription praises his humanist culture, doctrine, and political and diplomatic work.
The Chapel of the Guardian Angel occupies the opposite ambulatory and is enclosed by an iron gate with gilded bronze. Its seventeenth-century altar is made of Botticino marble and pink breccia. An early seventeenth-century octagonal canvas by Antonio Gandino shows the Guardian Angel pointing a child toward Heaven.
Balduino Lambertini
Beside the Chapel of the Guardian Angel stands the funerary monument of Balduino Lambertini, bishop of Brescia from 1344 to 1349. Bonino da Campione, a Gothic sculptor, carved the monument’s high relief. The scene shows the Virgin and Child, Lambertini kneeling before Saint Lawrence, and other saints including Saint Ambrose. Half-length figures of Saints Peter and Paul occupy another part of the monument, while a truncated-pyramidal canopy is crowned by the Christus patiens. The bishop’s reclining figure appears in pontifical vestments.
Berardo Maggi
Near the entrance is the red Verona-marble sarcophagus of Berardo Maggi, made in the early fourteenth century. Its monolithic chest is largely plain, while the gabled lid is richly decorated. The front presents the Peace of Berardo Maggi, with Guelph and Ghibelline processions emerging from the Broletto and San Pietro de Dom and meeting before the bishop to swear peace. Maggi holds the written agreement, and Ghibelline crenellation crowns the scene.
The rear shows Maggi in episcopal dress, holding a crozier and raising his hand in blessing, together with his funeral procession. The four Evangelist symbols occupy the corners of a draped sheet. Saints Peter and Paul, Saints Filastrius and Gaudentius, and Saints Faustinus and Jovita appear on the projecting corner blocks. The side gables show a Greek cross and Saint George killing the dragon. The funerary inscription identifies Maggi as bishop and prince of Brescia.
The sarcophagus originally stood behind or beside the high altar. Piantavigna moved it to the left end of the transept in 1571, and it reached its present position in 1896.
Saint Apollonius and Former Cathedral Works
A thirteenth-century marble bas-relief of Saint Apollonius stands beneath the stairway of the former campanile. The saint appears within an architectural setting of columns and arches. The slab probably formed part of a larger work, perhaps a diptych, because the carved column at the left is truncated.
Works formerly associated with Duomo vecchio include Moretto’s Banner of the Holy Crosses, dated 1520 to 1521, and Christ and the Angel, dated around 1550. Both are now held by the Tosio Martinengo Picture Gallery.
