Matris Domini Monastery, Dominican monastery in Bergamo, Italy

Matris Domini is a Romanesque monastery from the 13th century in central Bergamo that now houses a museum of medieval frescoes. The complex includes a church with a main nave and two side aisles, along with adjacent spaces displaying wall paintings from the 13th and 14th centuries.

Founded in the second half of the 13th century by the Dominican Order, the monastery's church was consecrated on 25 March 1273 by Bishop Guiscardo Suardi. It was rebuilt in 1359 and enlarged in the 16th and 17th centuries, then suppressed under Napoleonic rule. During World War II it was turned into a Gestapo prison before being returned to the nuns.

The name reflects the Dominican veneration of the Virgin Mary, which shaped the spiritual life of the community. The surviving artworks reveal how religious stories were painted to teach and inspire worshippers during the Middle Ages.

The site is easily accessible in the old city and admission is often free or requires a small contribution. The museum spaces are modest in size and scattered across different rooms, so allow time to view all the frescoes at a comfortable pace.

The museum keeps five polychrome glass roundels from a 14th-century stained-glass window that once decorated the apse of the old Romanesque church. They are the oldest vitreous work in Lombardy. In the largest, the Virgin and Blessing Child, as in the two angel roundels, the faces and hands are left without colour; the other two show Saint Dominic Blessing and Peter of Verona, the first Dominican saint.