Bergamo: Santa Maria Maggiore church by Szymon Madej

Gigapan + Canon G9

The Santa Maria Maggiore Basilica in Bergamo, viewed from the Campanone tower on Piazza Vecchia.

The church was founded in 1137 on the site of another church from the 8th century dedicated to St Mary, which had been in turn erected over a Roman temple of the Clemence. The high altar was consecrated in 1185 and in 1187 the presbytery and the transept wings were completed. Due to financial troubles, the works dragged for the whole 13th–14th centuries. The bell tower was built from 1436 (being completed around the end of the century), while in 1481–1491 a new sacristy added after the old one had been destroyed by Bartolomeo Colleoni to erect his personal mausoleum, the Colleoni Chapel.
The church opens on the square (Piazza Duomo) on its own left side, as the main façade has no entrance, being once united to the Bishops' Palace. The external appearance has largely maintained its Lombard-Romanesque origins. The church can be accessed by two entrances by Giovanni da Campione (1353) and by Isabello's Porta della Fontana. (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Maria_Maggiore,_Bergamo )
35240x25170 pixels, 156 images, Canon G9 @ 200 mm equiv., LR 3, GigaPan Stitch 1.0.0805.