Cappella Colleoni

Squeezed against the flank of the basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore in Bergamo's upper town, the Colleoni Chapel announces itself with a façade unlike anything around it: a dense, almost jewelled surface of white, red and black marble lozenges, carved reliefs, statues, medallions and a large rose window, rising to an octagonal drum and a lantern-topped dome. It is the mausoleum of Bartolomeo Colleoni, the fifteenth-century condottiero who rose to be captain general of the armies of the Republic of Venice, and the masterpiece of the architect and sculptor Giovanni Antonio Amadeo.

Colleoni had the chapel built in his own lifetime, in the early 1470s, on the site of the basilica's demolished sacristy, and it was largely complete by 1476; work on the details of the façade continued into the early sixteenth century. Amadeo, rooted in the medieval tradition but reaching towards the Lombard Renaissance, harmonised the chapel with the basilica beside it while making the façade a carved allegory of his patron's career. Busts of Julius Caesar and Trajan flank the rose window, the base carries reliefs of stories from Genesis paired with the labours of Hercules, and statues of the Virtues stand above the windows, mixing sacred and pagan imagery in praise of the commander.

Inside, the tomb rises opposite the entrance in two stacked sarcophagi carved with scenes of the life of Christ, crowned by a gilded wooden equestrian statue of Colleoni made by the Nuremberg carvers Sisto and Siry and set against a blue background. On the left wall lies the tomb of his favourite daughter Medea, who died in 1470, also by Amadeo, moved here in 1842. The domed ceiling was frescoed by Giambattista Tiepolo in 1732–1733 with episodes from the lives of Saints John the Baptist, Mark and Bartholomew, and the altar holds statues of the same saints attributed to the Lombardo family of sculptors. Colleoni died on 3 November 1475 and was buried here in January 1476, yet for centuries his sarcophagi were found empty; only in November 1969 was his body located, inside the monument itself, still dressed in its burial clothes and with his sword.

Bergamo, in Lombardy at the foot of the Alps, is divided between a modern lower town and the walled Città Alta on its hill, whose Venetian fortifications have been part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2017.

Getting there

The Colleoni Chapel stands on Piazza del Duomo in Bergamo's Città Alta, about 1 km from the city centre. Bergamo railway station is in the lower town. Il Caravaggio International Airport (BGY), at Orio al Serio, is about 5 km away.