Cremona Cathedral

From left to right: Bell ( Torrazzo ), Cathedral of Cremona Baptistery ( Baptistry )

The Cathedral of Cremona ( Cattedrale di Cremona ) is the episcopal see of the Diocese of Cremona. The Romanesque church also has elements of Gothic, Renaissance and Baroque periods.

Together with the baptistery and the bell tower, the Torrazzo, it forms the most important architectural unity of the city. The three buildings are opposite the town hall on the eastern edge of the Piazza del Comune ( the old Platea Maior of the medieval city).

The most important buildings of the three building dates from the period between the late 12th and 15th centuries.

History

The foundation stone was laid in 1107, but in 1117 the church collapsed by an earthquake in. It was not until 1129, a new building was begun. 1190 was the cathedral to be consecrated. Like most Italian cathedrals, it was dedicated to the Virgin Mary ( Cattedrale di Santa Maria Assunta, " Assumption ").

At this time the church had not yet present form. The transept was not yet available. Side of the facade two towers were planned on the German model, but these were eventually abandoned in favor of a more Italian solution; it was a single, large, free-standing Campanile in the north of the church built, which today is called Torrazzo. In the 13th and in the 14th century, the transept were built and completed the Torrazzo.

The façade was only completed in the 15th century. The redesign of the narthex replaced a simpler wood connection between the cathedral and the tall bell tower and the Piazza gave the appearance, corresponding to today.

The exterior

The carefully decorated marble facade facing the square, it was built over several centuries around the Romanesque portal elaborate. The area of ​​this wide façade is loosened halfway through four Romanesque arcades. In the rose window opens from the 13th century. The top part of the facade dates largely from the early Renaissance period and is therefore equipped with niches and volutes. The two medieval cylindrical side turrets contribute as a gothic elements of Lombardy - Central Europe overall impression of the building. The medieval main turrets in the middle was in 1491, as part of a modernization, replaced by a newer, inspired by Bramante's architecture.

The two smaller side facades at the transept are much simpler than the main facade and not like those clothed with marble. Its basic structure and the three upper openings (each a main rose with two rosettes on the sides) reveal the structure of the three-aisled transept clear. The top section of this facades form three turrets as in the main facade. Was completed, the northern facade of the transept in 1319, during the construction of the other side facade was completed in the south in 1374.

Both the main front in the West and the two side walls in the north and in the south stand partially free in the area, since his height is significantly larger than that of the underlying building mass.

Interior decoration

The church is a richly painted interior, three-aisled basilica with a cross-shaped pillars and groined vault. In the upper part, especially the double lancet windows of the galleries tell the predominantly Romanesque origin of the interior.

In plan, the scheme yokes 3 x 3 vessels is repeated for all four arms of the irregular cross. The not quite rectangular transept is very long and geographically similar to the rest of the building ( nave and choir ).

The rear end of the interior form three apses: the largest central apse imprinted with the blue, great Christ Fresco from Boccaccio Boccaccino the whole interior. Beneath the choir is a three-nave Romanesque crypt, which was renovated in 1606.

The organ was built in 1984 by the organ builder Mascioni. The instrument has to register manuals and pedal. The Spieltrakturen are mechanical, the Registertrakturen are electric.

• Couplers: I / II, III / I, III / II, I / P, II / P III / P

The Baptistery

Cremona Baptistery, the Baptistery, is located immediately southwest of the church and is a 34 m high, octagonal building with 20 meters in diameter.

It was started in 1167 and built in brick. During the Renaissance, the Baptistery received its present appearance when the outer walls were decorated by white marble: These clothing remained incomplete, which explains the current two-tone. In the upper part of the outer walls open galleries, remember whose arcades to that of the main facade of the cathedral.

Also in the upper part - but only in the interior of the Baptistry - shows one for the time significant, detached, also octagonal dome, which anticipates by their forms the basic scheme of the built 200 years later Brunelleschi cupola of Florence Cathedral. The light penetrates through mullioned windows and a lantern in the interior. In the middle of the baptistery is an octagonal baptismal font made ​​of red marble stone, which dates from the 16th century.

The Torrazzo (tower)

The Torrazzo, the steeple of the cathedral, is the landmark of the city. Its construction was begun on the remains of a cemetery of unknown origin starting around 1230 attack. Against the square, the Torrazzo is characterized by a large astronomical clock, which measures 8 feet in diameter. Typical of a Romanesque Campanile is the progressive relaxation of the mass in the upper part: About a mullioned window in the upper floors of two mullioned windows, still above also vierbogige windows are seen.

In the top portion of the square ground plan of the campanile goes to an octagon: the construction is crowned by a spire, which was completed in 1309.

Until the 20th century the Torrazzo remained at 112 meters the highest Italian church tower. Then a modern Campanile was built next to the neo-Gothic cathedral in Mortegliano, which is just higher.