Overview

The Cathedral of Cremona is one of the finest examples of Romanesque architecture in Lombardy. Much of the statuary on the façade, which catches the eye when looking at it from the Piazza del Comune, is also the work of artists and stone carvers from the Lombardy Lakes area, those whom art historians unite under the name of the Maestri Campionesi. As for the Baptistery, itself Romanesque but of later origins, it is a building in its own right, as in Parma. The Duomo's bell tower, the famous Torrazzo, is also located here.

The three aisles inside the cathedral, divided by pillars and overlooked by women's galleries, continue into the transept, while a cycle of frescoes retracing the Life of Mary and Jesus runs along the nave and in the central apse: it is the work of 16th-century Lombard-Venetian painters, including Giovanni Antonio de' Sacchis known as Pordenone. Instead, the two pulpits in front of the presbytery, with reliefs partly attributed to Giovanni Antonio Amadeo, and, in the crypt, the Ark of Saints Marcellinus and Peter consisting of a sarcophagus resting on an altar: the main side of the altar bears three magnificent panels with the risen Christ, the work of Amadeo, between two episodes from the lives of the saints sculpted instead by Bernardo Briosco.

During fine weather, the cathedral is best visited thanks to one of the Aperti per Voi (Open for You) initiatives organised by the volunteers of the Touring Club Italiano.