Basilica di Sant’Andrea
A graceful Renaissance facade fronts this 15th-century church by star architect Leon Battista Alberti; it’s the grandest in Mantua and is topped by a dome added by Filippo Juvarra in the 18th century. Inside, the classically proportioned, vast space is centered on the church’s single aisle. Light pours in through the dome, highlighting the carefully crafted trompe l’oeil painting of the coffered, barrel-vaulted ceiling. The Gonzaga court painter Mantegna—creator of the Camera degli Sposi in the Palazzo Ducale—is buried in the first chapel on the left. The crypt houses a reliquary containing the blood of Christ, which was allegedly brought here by Longinus, the Roman soldier who thrust his spear into Jesus’s side; this is processed through town on March 18, the feast of Mantua’s patron, Sant’Anselmo.
A graceful Renaissance facade fronts this 15th-century church by star architect Leon Battista Alberti; it’s the grandest in Mantua and is topped by a dome added by Filippo Juvarra in the 18th century. Inside, the classically proportioned, vast space is centered on the church’s single aisle. Light pours in through the dome, highlighting the carefully crafted trompe l’oeil painting of the coffered, barrel-vaulted ceiling. The Gonzaga court painter Mantegna—creator of the Camera degli Sposi in the Palazzo Ducale—is buried in the first chapel on the left. The crypt houses a reliquary containing the blood of Christ, which was allegedly brought here by Longinus, the Roman soldier who thrust his spear into Jesus’s side; this is processed through town on March 18, the feast of Mantua’s patron, Sant’Anselmo.
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