The Chapel of the Holy Sacrament and the Crypt

The Chapel of the Holy Sacrament and the Crypt

Just after the Mausoleum of the Bishop Francesco Sfondrati built by Francesco Dattaro in 1558, we find the Chapel of the Holy Sacrament that, as the specular Chapel of Our Lady of the People, closes the right aisle. Even this chapel was many times readjusted either in the second half of the 16th century, on a project of Dattaro and with a stucco decorative work by "il Bombarda", or in the 17th century by the Natalis and again in the 19th century. It presents an exuberant stucco decoration that incorporates a series of paintings, works of the two great Cremonese masters of Cinquecento, Giulio and Bernardino Campi, to whom G.A.Borroni, the major Cremonese painter of that period, was added in the 18th century. A work of this artist is actually the painting located in the first section of the right wall with a Supper in Emmaus, above which we find a work by Giulio Campi of 1569 with the Sacrifice of Melchizedek, while in the side space the Washing of the feet and the Resurrection of Lazarus located above are both dated works (1569) by Bernardino Campi.

On the left wall we find again a Last Supper (1568) and the Magdalene at the feet of Jesus in the house of the Pharisee (1569) by Giulio Campi and the Apparition of Christ to Magdalene by Giovan Angelo Borroni, dominated by the Gathering of the Manna by Giulio Campi.

As we go out from the Chapel of the Holy Sacrament and before going downstairs to the crypt, two precious marble sculptures deserve to be cited: a relief sculpted tryptych signed by Tommaso Amici and Mabila del Mazo (1495), formerly altarpiece of St. Nicholas who is actually represented in the center between St. Damian and St. Omobonus, and on the frontal wall, closing the "piazzetta senatoria", a panel with the Charity of St. Imerius, a work of Giovan Antonio Amadeo.

The visit of the Cathedral may end with the crypt, a wide space covering all the area below the presbytery and that recently has been the subject of restoration works, come from the need to make order of the tombstones of the town bishops in the occasion of the death of the Bishop Giulio Nicolini (2002). An explorative archaeological excavation has thus confirmed some traditional historical data; the area of the crypt is in fact the oldest part of the cathedral and under the flooring traces of roman buildings have appeared that may be dated back to the 1st century A.D., besides the remainings of an octagonal building that for its datation (between the half of the 4th century and the 5th century A.D.) is the oldest baptismal structure of the town. The actual aspect of the crypt is instead the outcome of a long series of works started in the 17th century, but completed only in 1922 with the readjustment of the altar of the town Patron Saint Omobono Tucenghi who died in 1197, whose mortal remains can be seen from up close entering the small room behind the altar with a mosaic flooring of the 12th century.