Santa Maria del Carmine, Pavia, Gothic parish church in Pavia, Italy
Santa Maria del Carmine is a brick church begun in 1374, with a facade of three arched portals and a terracotta rose window framed by angel heads. Its Latin-cross interior, about 80 metres long, has three naves and sixteen square side chapels, with terracotta ribs contrasting with light plaster.
Construction started in 1374 when Duke Gian Galeazzo Visconti commissioned the building with Bernardo da Venezia as architect. The work was completed in 1461 after nearly nine decades of building.
The Carmelites held their first Pavia church from 1298; it was demolished in 1364 for the Visconti Castle, and Galeazzo II compensated them with the church of Santi Faustino e Giovita and funds for this new building. In 1811 the relics of Blessed Bernardine of Feltre were moved here from San Giacomo della Vernavola. The Chapel of Saint Sebastian was chosen in 1509 as burial place by students from France, Flanders and German-speaking lands.
The church is located at Via del Carmine 11 and can be easily spotted by its tall bell tower, which rises about 75 meters. The tower serves as a helpful landmark for getting oriented in the Pavia area.
The bell tower, built around 1450, rises 75 metres and is the tallest in Pavia; it carries mullioned windows with marble columns and was crowned with a dome in 1725. The church's plan follows the ad quadratum module, a single square repeated in width, length and height.
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