Church Santa Maria del Consorzio or Chiesa in Castello

Church Santa Maria or chiesa in Castello, is the oldest in the country, probably built on the ruins of the castle that existed within the city walls.

The Church Santa Maria or Chiesa in Castello has no certain origins, it is known that in the XIII century it belonged to the Congregation of Santa Maria which had its headquarters here and hence takes its name, later, after 1288, it takes the name ” church of the consortium “and in 1434 it was rebuilt in the late Gothic style. In 1532 the Marquis Aloisio Gonzaga restored it and built the family burial chapel where Aloisio was first buried in 1549 and his son Alfonso in 1592 but, in the same year 1592, Ippolita Maggi sent them to the Shrine of Our Lady of Grace in Mantua; From the end of the eighteenth century it was used for various non-religious use until 1986, when the church was demolished to make room for a civil building; during the works, remarkable early medieval finds of the VIII-IX century related to the castle and the Castelvecchio fortification came to light. At present the church has a polygonal apse with an umbrella vault, some 16th century frescoes, the 15th century bell tower with its mullioned windows and mullioned windows, the marble portal from 1532 and three Aloysian epigraphs.

foto di Alessandro1978