San Petronio Basilica

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The unfinished facade of San Petronio Basilica.

The Basilica of San Petronio is the main church of Bologna, the old art city in Emilia Romagna region of Italy. It is sited in the Piazza Maggiore. It is the fifth greatest church in the world, stretching for 132 meters in length and 60 in width, while the vault reaches 45 meters.

It is dedicated to the patron saint of the city, Saint Petronius, who was bishop here in the 5th century. Following a council decree of 1388, the first stone of construction was laid June 7, 1390, when the town council entrusted Antonio di Vincenzo with raising a Gothic cathedral: the patrons' intent was to outdo even Saint Peter's Basilica of Rome, the greatest church of the Western Christian world (even in its ancient version). The Pope halted such a majestic project and the Bolognesi shifted to a less impressive undertaking.

In spite of this the basilica enjoyed a great prestige from the very beginning: pope Clement VII chose it for the coronation of Charles V in 1530.

Works lasted for several centuries: after the completion of the first version of the facade, in 1393 the first pair of side chapels were begun. The series were completed only in 1479, however. The vaulting and decoration of the central nave is by Girolamo Rainaldi, who completed it in 1646-1658.

Jacopo della Quercia enriched the facade with two new small doorways flanking the central one. The facing of the main facade, however, is today unfinished: many architects (notably Baldassarre Peruzzi, Jacopo Barozzi detto il Vignola, Andrea Palladio and Alberto Alberti) were summoned to propose solutions for it, but a definitive one was never found.

The Porta Magna.

The construction of the basilica was a project of the comune of Bologna, not of the bishops: property was not transferred to the diocese until 1929; the basilica was finally consecrated in 1954. It has been the seat of the relics of Bologna's patron saint only since 2000; until then they were preserved in the Santo Stefano church of Bologna.

The interior is notable for a Madonna with Saints by Lorenzo Costa the Younger and a Pietà by Amico Aspertini. Also the colours of the walls and the stained glass windows are noteworthy. The choir was made in 14th century by Agostino de' Marchi, while the ciborium is a work by Vignola.

The church hosts also a sundial built in 1655 and designed by the famous astronomer Giovanni Domenico Cassini: at 66.8 meters it is the longest sundial in the world.

Elisa Bonaparte, Napoleone Bonaparte's sister, is buried here.

In 2006, plans by Muslim terrorists to destroy the Basilica were thwarted by Italian police. The terrorists claimed that a 15th-century fresco inside depicting the Prophet Mohammed in Hell being devoured by demons is as insulting to Islam (1)