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Bergamo Cittą Altą is why you come to Bergamo. When you get up the hill you arrive at the main square of Piazza Mercato delle Scarpe. From here, Via Gombito takes you to Piazza Vecchia that has been called the most beautiful place on earth. It is a completely open square whose space is surreal. The square is light at night by wrought iron lamps that highlight the delicate wrought iron balcony that dress the buildings. The most impressive of these buildings is the medieval Palazzo della Ragione, or the house of reason. This buildings stretches across the square and was the court house where case were heard under the arches that trellis the ground floor of this beautiful building and it was were guilty criminals were displayed. The piazza is marked in history as the celebratory point for the republic of Bergamo when the city was freed by the French. To honour the moment a tree was set up as a "tree of Liberty" and the square became a ballroom for the celebrations. Beside the Palazzo della Ragione on the right is the enormous Torre Civica otherwise known as the Torre del Campanone. It has a fifteenth century bell that marks time to this day on the half hour. From this square you can reach the Piazza del Duomo to the Duomo of the city, surprisingly unremarkable for an Italian cathedral. More interesting is the church in front of it, Santa Maria Maggiore that is a Romanesque building with a gothic porch and ceilings that underline Baroque excess. Probably the most beautiful things to see when you get you sight back from the gilded dazzle is the choir stalls designed by Lotto. But for complete extravagance you have to see the Cappella Colleoni that was added to the church in 1470 and designed by Amadeo. It is like a cake of pale marble and tiny arches and has a frescoed ceiling by Tiepolo that covers Colleoini's sarcophagus decorated with gilded horses and reliefs. A quirky note is that the coat of arms of Colleoni has a third testicle and rubbing it brings good luck. The bapistry is also worth a look. It was detached from the church in the seventeenth century and boasts frescoes of the thirteenth and fourteenth century including the strange one of Christ holding a dagger iin his teeth! |