Milan
Romanesque cathedral
Lodi Duomo, or the Cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta, was begun in 1160 and completed a little more than a century later. It is one of the largest Romanesque buildings in Lombardy.
The façade of the monocuspid structure features a series of windows inserted during different epochs. The rampant moulding on small arches rises above a wide Renaissance rose window and the superb doorway. The latter is embellished at the sides with Romanesque statues and features a prothyrum supported by lions supposedly taken from the cathedral of Laus Pompeia.
The 3 nave interior is supported by massive cylindrical columns. Much of the cathedral's current appearance is owed to repairs made between 1956-64 by Alessandro Degani when he restored the church's original appearance hidden below its 18th c. patina.
The apse, richly decorated with stone elements probably taken from the Romanesque churches of Lodivecchio, leads to the crypt in which the reliquaries of the patron saint are held. A 12th c. Romanesque relief on the front was taken from Laus Pompeia.
The octagonal chapel to the side of the apse contains a splendid polychrome wooden sculpture of eight statues.
On the right of the façade stands the belltower designed in 1539 by Callisto Piazza and built over the medieval tower that was never finished.
| Neighborhood: | South-east |
| Address: | Piazza della Vittoria |
| Lodi, 26900 |
| Phone: | +39 037151134 |