Overview
The church is set near the countryside outside central Piacenza, and was built at the request of the local people in the 1520s, to house a much-worshipped statue of the Virgin with Child, on the spot where an earlier sacred building had stood since the year 1000. The 14th-century statue can still be seen on the main altar.
The architecture of the Basilica, designed by Alessio Tramello, is a compact Greek cross – in brick, like many buildings on the Piacenza plain. It has a tall octagonal tiburium in the centre with four smaller ones above the corner chapels.
The interior of the central tiburium, the vault of the dome, is a masterpiece of frescoes painted shortly after construction by Giovanni Antonio de’ Sacchis ("Il Pordenone"), then completed by Bernardino Gatti ("Il Sojaro"). But the pictorial decoration is everywhere: the chapels were also painted by Il Pordenone. This church, which in 2022 celebrated half a millennium since its original design, also contains artworks by – among others – Galeazzo, Giulio and Bernardino Campi, Camillo Procaccini, Guercino and Galli Bibiena.
Piazzale delle Crociate, 5, 29121 Piacenza PC, Italia
