MONUMENTS AND CHURCHES
BASILICA SANTA MARIA MAGGIORE
Città Alta
Romanesque basilica erected in 1187, without a facade and entrances on the front, embellished by two Gothic porches on the sides of the transept.
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Inside it is embellished with frescoes, tapestries, carvings and inlays, stuccos, altarpieces, canvases and sepulchral monuments, including that of Gaetano Donizetti, one of the most important nineteenth-century Italian composers. The wooden choir, made up of inlays with biblical stories protected by covers, was built in the second quarter of the sixteenth century based on designs by the Venetian painter Lorenzo Lotto.
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The story of its construction is particularly curious: in the early 1100s, Europe was overwhelmed by a terrible plague epidemic. The inhabitants of Bergamo turn to the Madonna asking for protection from the contagion, in exchange they will dedicate a church to her. In 1137 they followed up on the vote and built the said Basilica on the Piazza del Duomo in the Upper Town, which still today belongs to the city and not to the Curia.
OPENING HOURS
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from Monday to Friday from 09.00 to 12.30 And from 14.30 to 18.00
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Saturday, Sunday and holidays from 09.00 to 18.00
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Phone: +39 035 223327
Piazza Duomo, 5 - Bergamo
CATTEDRALE DI SANT'ALESSANDRO
Città Alta
Baroque cathedral built in 1689 on the remains of the previous ones (dating back to the 15th, 13th and 5th centuries AD) visible in its hypogeum and set up since 2012 in the Museo degli Scavi e del Tesoro.
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The current decorative apparatus boasts paintings by Andrea Previtali, Giovanni Battista Moroni, Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, frescoes by Francesco Coghetti and relics of San Giovanni XXIII originally from Sotto il Monte in the province of Bergamo.
OPENING HOURS
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from Monday to Friday from 07.30 to 12.00 And from 15.00 to 18.30
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Saturdays and holidays from 07.00 to 19.00
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Phone: +39 035 271208
Piazza Duomo - Bergamo
EX CONVENTO DI SANT'AGOSTINO
Città Alta
The first convent nucleus of the Hermit Order dates back to the end of the 13th century, followed by the Gothic church consecrated in 1347 and enlarged at the end of the third quarter of the 15th century.
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Each side has 7 noble chapels, once entirely frescoed and covered with paintings, altarpieces, marbles and burial grounds, destroyed by the arrival of Napoleon's French at the end of the 19th century, who transformed the site into a barracks. The recovery is recent and now houses one of the headquarters of the city university.
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*Accessible with permission from the University Rector (normally granted)
OPENING HOURS
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The monastic complex can be visited during the opening hours of the University of Bergamo
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Phone:+39 035 2052111
Piazzale S. Agostino, 2 - Bergamo
CHIESA DI SAN BERNARDINO
Città Bassa
The site currently has neo-Gothic features, which conceal the fifteenth-century building wanted by the inhabitants of the district.
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The interior is essential, but on the altar the altarpiece by Lorenzo Lotto, Madonna and Saints, which sees around the Virgin the saints Giuseppe, Bernardino - owner of the building - San Sebastiano and Sant'Antonio Abate, figures connected with the village and with the client.
OPENING HOURS
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from Tuesday to Saturday from 10.00 to 17.30
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Sunday from 08.00 to 18.00
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Phone: +39 035 237887
Via Pignolo, 57 - Bergamo
CHIESA DI SANTO SPIRITO
Città Bassa
Very rich Renaissance building inserted between a previous construction site and the last one from the Baroque era. Each chapel was intended for a family of the village and this justifies the presence of masterpieces, including the polyptychs by Bergognone, Previtali and the altarpiece by Lorenzo Lotto (Madonna and Saints, 1521): the painting is magnificent for layout, figures and pictorial palette and presents a swirl of polychrome angels and the figure of San Giovannino who embraces the lamb at the foot of the throne, unaware of his sad fate.
OPENING HOURS
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from Monday to Saturday from 08.00 to 18.00
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Sunday from 09.00 to 12.00 and from 15.00 to 19.30
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Phone: +39 035 237887
Via Torquato Tasso, 100 - Bergamo
CENTRO PIACENTINIANO
Città Bassa
The name of the area, which has brought the heart of Lower Bergamo back to life since the first quarter of the last century, derives from its designer Marcello Piacentini, winner of a national competition organized by the Municipality of Bergamo.
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The new buildings, intended to house services (courthouse, Chamber of Commerce, walkways, day hotel) and banking institutions, replace the more than 500 eighteenth-century shops: these were arranged along the internal linear axes of the perimeter wall, between the San Marco Hospital ( demolished) and the Sentierone.
Phone:+39 035 243560
Dante Alighieri Square - Bergamo
CHIESA E MUSEO DOMENICANO MATRIS DOMINI
Città Bassa
Cloistered monastic complex founded in the XIII century. Its remains, partially re-emerged with the latest restoration, are rearranged in the Matris Domini Museum, which can be accessed from the first public cloister. In the new exhibition rooms, formerly used as a laundry, frescoes from the 13th to the 16th century are exhibited, as well as the original stained glass windows depicting the Virgin and saints, coming from the church choir and now replaced by copies. In the church a large and high gate divides the public hall from the cloistered one, on which stands a beautiful black marble altar by the Manni brothers from Rovio, placed under a canvas by an unknown artist.
OPENING HOURS
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weekdays from 06.30 to 19.30
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public holidays from 07.00 to 19.00
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Phone: +39 035 3884811
Via Antonio Locatelli, 77 - Bergamo
EX MONASTERO DI ASTINO E VALLE DELLA BIODIVERSITÀ
Colli
The former Vallombrosan complex, which adopted the Benedictine rule, was built in the 12th century, expanded and renovated until the first half of the 18th century, when the frescoes from the workshop of Cristoforo Baschenis the Elder were replaced by stuccos, tempera paintings, canvases and Baroque works contained in the splendor and decorations. In the cloister, mutilated in 1910 of the northern portico, some common rooms remain destined for the internal activity of the monastery, including the refectory which has recently recovered the majestic painting Last Supper by Alessandro Allori.
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The Bergamo Botanical Garden arrives in the landscaped area of Astino offering visitors biodiversity and agro-biodiversity. From May to October it is possible to take an educational walk among the over 1,000 varieties of plants used by man throughout his history. Belonging to over 300 species, they represent a precious heritage set up in a high quality agricultural-forestry compendium, such as that of Astino.
Phone:+39 035 286060
Via Astino, crossroads via Allegrezza - Bergamo
