Basilica of San Petronio

History

The Basilica was born in 1388 when, in honour of Bishop Petronius, who had been named the city’s patron saint in 1253, the Council of Six Hundred of the Commune of Bologna decided to begin building a church dedicated to him. Its foundation dates back to 7 June 1390, when the first stone was laid to a design by Antonio di Vincenzo. It is the last great late Gothic building in Italy, begun shortly after Milan Cathedral (1386).
In 1514 Arduino degli Arriguzzi proposed a new, far more ambitious Latin-cross design that would have made the church larger than St Peter’s Basilica, but the project was halted and the Basilica was never fully completed. According to popular tradition, it was the Church of Rome itself that actively hindered its completion and the expansion plan, to prevent it from surpassing St Peter’s in size. The real reasons, however, were different, including financial difficulties and the construction at the same time of the Palazzo dell’Archiginnasio (seat of the University), which limited its expansion. Its most obvious “unfinished” feature remains the façade, which is clad in marble only on its lower part, while the upper part has been left as bare brick for centuries.
Nevertheless, the structure of the church is considered functionally and structurally complete around 1663, after the vaults of the naves and the apse were closed between 1656 and 1658.
Its history is linked to important civic and religious events, such as the coronation of Charles V in 1530 and some sessions of the Council of Trent.