Cremona, Cathedral

The Cathedral of Cremona was founded in 1107, as evidenced by the foundation stone supported by the prophets Enoch and Elias, which is now preserved in the Sacristy of the Canons. It was later on rebuilt in 1117 after the disastrous earthquake that shocked the entire Po area. The Cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta, which is the seat of the Bishop of the Diocese of Cremona, is a large Romanesque temple that has been over time readapted with elements in Gothic, Renaissance and Baroque style. The Renaissance works, which started in 1491, mainly concerned the upper part of the façade and the completion of the marble covering. The Bertazzola, i.e. the aerial portico that develops from the base of Torrazzo all along the façade and the work by Lorenzo Trotti, dates back to the same period. The façade of the cathedral looks like an open-air museum of sculptures, among which the Madonna with Child sided by the two patron saints of the town St. Imerio and St. Omobono and the marble decoration of the months in antelamic style stand out over the prothyrum. The three-naved inside looks imposing both because of its size, and because of the rich series of decorations. The nave shows a series of women’s galleries with double lancet windows and multi-lancet windows. The large frescoed strip between the arches and the women’s galleries illustrates episodes from the “Life of the Virgin and Christ”, made between the 1514 and 1529 by Boccaccio Boccaccino, Gianfrancesco Bembo, Altobello Melone, Girolamo Romanino, Bernardino Gatti and the Pordenone. Near the presbytery there are some paintings by the Campi brothers, the great wooden ancona with the Assunta di Gatti and the canonical choir with double stalls, which is an amazing wooden engraving and inlay work by Giovanni Maria da Piadena, also known as Platina. Below the presbytery, the crypt, which is the oldest part of the cathedral, preserves the mortal remains of the patron saint St. Omobono Tucenghi, who died in 1197 and was the first secular and civilian saint of the Roman Church. Worth mentioning in the Northern transept is the Big Cross, i.e. a masterpiece of Lombard goldsmith’s craft of the Renaissance that was performed between 1470 and 1478 by the silversmiths Pozzi and Sacchi.