Chiesa di S. Maria Maggiore
The Renaissance Church of S. Maria Maggiore used to host part of the Council of Trent.
Santa Maria Maggiore is the church of the Council of Trento. Preparatory congregations through its third stage - from April of 1562 to December of 1563 - were held here. The church was built by the Prince-Bishop Bernardo Clesio between 1520 and 1524, based on a project by Antonio Medaglia. The church was built over the remains of the Forum of Roman Tridentum, where the foundations of the first Episcopal church of Trento Diocese from the 4th to the 9th century might be found. This Romanesque church was replaced by a church with a single nave, a barrel vault and no transept. It was an explicit answer to the Church of Sant'Andrea by Leon Battista Alberti - known personally by Clesio - in Mantua.
The intervention was also probably due to political reasons, since the Prince-Bishop wanted to follow the cultural trends of the Italian Renaissance, as opposed to the Romanesque-Gothic tradition of central European courts.
