San Petronio Basilica, Minor basilica in Piazza Maggiore, Bologna, Italy.
San Petronio is a brick Gothic church on Piazza Maggiore in Bologna, 132 m long and 60 m wide, with a vault 44.27 m high. Its west front is unfinished, showing bare brick above the portal by Jacopo della Quercia. Inside, tall red-brown stone piers with carved capitals carry pointed arches outlined in red-brown ribs, and a separate ribbed dome with a lantern stands beside the building.
Construction began in 1390 under Antonio di Vincenzo, who had studied cathedrals in Florence, Venice, and Milan. Work continued over centuries, and the building remained unfinished due to lack of funds and political changes.
The church is dedicated to San Petronio, bishop of Bologna in the 5th century and city patron since 1253; the building was commissioned by the civic government, not the diocese. In the fourth chapel on the left, the Cappella dei Re Magi, Giovanni da Modena painted the Journey of the Magi and a Last Judgment inspired by Dante, with a figure of Muhammad that has drawn protests from Muslim groups.
The main altar stands to the south, since the building's axis runs north-south rather than west-east. The unfinished facade on Piazza Maggiore shows bare brick above the lower level, where the stones for the missing cladding still wait. Inside, the 66.8 m meridian of Cassini lies across the floor of the left aisle.
A narrow brass line runs along the floor of the left aisle, installed by Cassini in the 17th century and serving as a sundial. At noon, a ray of light falls through a small hole in the vault onto the line, marking the seasons.
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