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Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore

This important Basilica of ancient origin is nestled within its narthex in the porticoed curtain wall on the Galliera road. The 6th century beginnings and Romanesque transformations left the building oriented, as in Christian tradition, towards the east. This orientation was reversed in the Bentivoglio family era, according to some recent documentary findings, or later as illustrated in the historiography reports, with the transformations by Paolo Canali in 1665. In all cases, the façade is set on a portico surmounted by a unit that was used as a rectory. It was augmented with an additional level in the 17th century and crowned by a triangular pediment in 1956 by the engineer Giuseppe Coccolini.
How to get there
dettaglio della facciata della chiesa

Carlo Francesco Dotti, the architect of the Sanctuary of San Luca, was commissioned by Pope Lambertini to rebuild the main chapel in 1748. This was then adorned with a new marble altar by Alfonso Torreggiani, and an exceptionally high-quality pipe organ. The chapels boasted frescoes and paintings of the Bolognese school, while a most unusual decision was made to appoint a modern painter, Eliseo Fumagalli from Valtellina, to decorate the vault between 1936 and 1938. 

Sources

M.B. Bettazzi, Chiesa di Santa Maria Maggiore, in Bologna. Guida di architettura, progetto editoriale e fotografie di Lorenzo Capellini, coordinamento editoriale di Giuliano Gresleri, Torino, U. Allemandi, 2004, p. 130.

Photo: 1Cinquantesimo