Basilica di Santa Maria di Campagna, Minor basilica in Piacenza, Italy.
The Basilica di Santa Maria di Campagna is a Renaissance church on piazzale delle Crociate, by Piacenza's city walls. Alessio Tramello's design, built from 1522, originally had a Greek-cross plan, changed in 1791 by Lotario Tomba into a reversed Latin cross with an added presbytery arm and choir. An octagonal dome covers the crossing, and the marble floor was laid by the Milanese artist Giambattista Carrà in 1595.
The church replaced the small oratory of Santa Maria in Campagnola, documented from 1030. On 3 April 1522 the Fabbricieri signed a contract with the Piacenza architect Alessio Tramello, and Cardinal Scaramuccia Trivulzio laid the first stone on 13 April; the building was finished in six years. In 1791 Lotario Tomba lengthened the presbytery arm, turning the Greek cross into a Latin one.
The name comes from the earlier Santa Maria in Campagnola, a small sanctuary that stood in open countryside. The Pordenone painted the dome and the Chapel of Saint Catherine of Alexandria between 1530 and 1535 for Caterina Scotti and Francesco Paveri Fontana; his pupil Bernardino Gatti, called il Sojaro, finished the chapel from 1543 with the Apostles on the pilasters, the stories of the Virgin in the drum and the four Evangelists in the pendentives.
The church stands on piazzale delle Crociate, just inside Piacenza's city walls, and is entered from that square through the facade. The interior is a single hall under the octagonal dome, so the Pordenone frescoes of the dome and the Cappella di Santa Caterina are seen from the nave; the Mochi stucco of Ranuccio I Farnese is on a bracket on one of the dome piers. The 1791 extension by Lotario Tomba added the presbytery arm and choir behind the high altar.
The wooden Madonna and Child kept here dates from the 14th century, older than the Renaissance church around it. Tradition also holds that Pope Urban II announced the First Crusade at this site in 1095, which is why the square in front is named Piazzale delle Crociate.
The community of curious travelers
AroundUs brings together thousands of curated places, local tips, and hidden gems, enriched daily by 94,346 contributors worldwide.