Duomo di Desenzano del Garda, Parish church in Desenzano del Garda, Italy
The church of Santa Maria Maddalena, known as the duomo of Desenzano del Garda, has a west-facing Baroque facade divided into two orders linked by spiral buttresses. The lower order has four pairs of Doric pilasters and a 1699 portal topped by a statue of the Magdalene attributed to Sante Calegari the Elder. Inside, three naves are separated by six Botticino marble columns each, with a barrel-vaulted central nave and a floor of red Verona marble and white stone laid diagonally.
A diploma of Carloman of Bavaria from 878 is the first document mentioning the pieve of Desenzano, subject with its castle to the Abbey of San Zeno in Verona; a bull of Eugene III in 1145 confirmed it under the Bishop of Verona. No trace of the old church remains: it was rebuilt at the end of the 15th century and restructured in 1586. The church was consecrated on 6 December 1611 by Alberto Valier, Bishop of Verona.
The parish church is dedicated to Mary Magdalene, whose late-17th-century statue attributed to Sante Calegari il Vecchio stands on the broken arch of the 1699 portal. The left nave opens into two separate chapels: the Santissimo Sacramento (1738) and that of Desenzano's patron Sant'Angela Merici (1881).
The west-facing facade opens onto the piazza; the main portal, dated 1699, is the usual entrance. Inside, the two chapels of Sant'Angela Merici and the Santissimo Sacramento open off the left nave and are separate spaces. The baptismal font sits raised by two steps behind a railing, right of the entrance.
The second altar on the right was begun in 1608 at the town's expense for Angela Merici and Saint Ursula, but work stopped in 1628 after Pope Urban VIII barred worship of unbeatified figures. Its 1768 altarpiece by Gambettino Cignaroli shows the blessed Angela in glory with Saints Anthony of Padua and Aloysius Gonzaga.
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