Bergamo Travel Guide

The upper town

Celts, Goths, Romans, Lombards succeeded on the hill, but little can now be seen of them: some of the most important monuments date back to the Middle Ages. The four centuries under the Venetian domination are the most significant period, when Venice and Bergamo were very close, both from an historical and a cultural point of view.

Piazza Vecchia, the heart of the old town, is enriched by such remarkable historical monuments as the Palazzo del Comune or Palazzo della Ragione, the Commune Tower, the Venetian Mayor ’s House and the Library Angelo Mai, formerly the town hall. All around the Cathedral Square, a very religious area, are the Cathedral, S. Maria Maggiore, the Colleoni Chapel and the Baptistery. Built (1472) by Giovanni Antonio Amadeo by order of the famous condottiere Bartolomeo Colleoni, the Colleoni Chapel is one of the most significant examples of the lombard Renaissance. The basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore was built to the glory of God by the people of the town in ‘200.

The upper town gathers churches and monasteries which represent the most remarkable traces of the past such as Sant’Agostino and San Francesco. The church of S.Michele al Pozzo Bianco with its important collection of frescos dated 200 and 500 is one of the most charming places of upper Bergamo, where also Lorenzo Lotto worked in 1525.

The Accademia Carrara is one of the most important picture-galleries in Italy. Its exhibition halls show paintings of world famous artists, including also some works of the most important artists of Bergamo.

Close to the Accademia Carrara is the Gallery of Modern and Contemporary Art.

Modern Town and Gaetano Donizetti

Vittorio Veneto square in the centre of the modern town. The building on the left, which is now head office of Banca Popolare Bergamo, was erected at the place of the ancient monastery of S.Marta whose elegant cloister is still present inside the bank.

Bergamo is a music-town, native land of Gaetano Donizetti (1797), the famous musician who left more than seventy compositions, among which “Elisir d’Amore” (1832)and “Lucia di Lammermoor” (l835) won him world renown. Gaetano Donizetti was always emotionally bound to his town, which treasures many memories of him.

Just outside the walls encircling the upper town, at the beginning of Borgo Canale, one can see the house where he was born. Bergamo dedicated him the major theatre and a museum, rich in very suggestive relics and memories.

The Accademia Carrara, the Gallery of Modern and Contemporary Art, the Natural Science Museum and the Archeological Museum, the Library Mai are some of the most important cultural centres of Bergamo.

However don’t forget Donizetti Theatre, with its “festival Donizetti and its time, ”and the International Festival for Piano plays also dominant role.

The villages, the walls and Lorenzo Lotto

The characteristic alleys, old urban centres, with their shops and handicrafts are always full of people.

The new centre, connecting the East to the West part of the lower town, is crossed by the Sentierone, a traditional meeting point and shopphig area for the people living in Bergamo. Developing for more than five kilometres, the still well-preserved town-walls that encircle Bergamo on the hill are one of the most important evidence of bulwarks of the fifth century. Venice started their building in 1561 thus making Bergamo a fortress on the boundary with the State of Milan.

The grand ring provided with four gateways offers a charming and very frequented promenade with foreshortened views on the modern town, the plain and the mountain. After being amazed at the charming skyline of towers and bell towers, those who want to reach the upper town have to pass through the imposing town-walls. The Castle of S. Vigilio, once part of the ancient fortification, offers you one of the most suggestive views of the old town. Two different cable railways take people from downtown either to the Castle or to the upper town.

The old town lays amongst the greenary, to the advantage of the landscape. This strip of lush vegetation connects the historical town with the hill region extending westward.

The territory, included in the park “Parco dei colli” of Bergamo, is full of villas, farmhouses, vegetable gardens, gardens, woods and is enriched with some important historical and architectonic elements, such as the former monastery of Astino.

The period spent in Bergamo - regarded by Lotto (the Venetian “pictor famosissimus”) as his adopted home - was without doubt the happiest of his life. It was also the most productive. In the 12 years spanning 1513, when the San Bartolomeo altarpiece was painted, and 1525, when the frescoes depicting Stories from the Life of Mary were completed in the church of San Michele al Pozzo Bianco, Lotto also produced the S. Maria Maggiore choir intarsias and the altarpieces adorning the two churches of S. Alessandro patron saint of Bergamo and S. Spirito and S. Bernardino. The artist’s personal fusion of elements of Bramante’s, Raffaello’s and Leonardo’s art with those of the school of Lombardy can be seen as marking the high point of Lotto’s artistic expression.

For more than a century to come, painting in Bergamo was to be influenced by the art of Lorenzo Lotto.

Texts and photos courtesy of PROVINCIA DI BERGAMO, SETTORE CULTURA, SPORT E TURISMO - CIRCOLO FOTOGRAFICO MARIANESE