Duomo

The cathedral is a severe, romanic-gothic building of the twelfth-thirteenth century with a striking fifteenth-century tower and neoromanic lantern. Dedicated to Saint Vigilio (patron saint of Trento), it has graceful open galleries decorated by large rosettes on the front and transept, by sumptuous portals and a beautiful absidal section. This last borders with the "Castelletto", a twelfth-century building with mullioned windows and battlements. The interior is made up of a nave and two aisles with clustered pillars and cross-vaults. Staircases cut laterally across the walls at the beginning of both aisles. Funerary monuments of the fifteenth century are located along their whole length. Half way up the right-hand aisle, there is St. Anne's altar with decorations by Fogliolino. This is shortly followed by "la cappella del Crocifisso" (Crucifix chapel), which guards the historical wooden Crucifix (XVI century) of the German sculptor Sisto Frey, in front of which the Concilium formulated its decrees. The transept presents noteworthy remains of thirteenth- and fifteenth-century frescoes. A stone statue of "La Madonna degli Annegati" (Drowned peoples' Madonna) is situated at the bottom of the left hand aisle (XIII century). Its name goes back to the times when drowned people were identified in its presence. The statue used to be in an alcove outside the cathedral. A room below the church contains the remains of the paleochristian basilica of the sixth century, used as catacombs for five centuries. Rebuilt and modified in the eleventh century, it was replaced by the present cathedral by archbishop Federico Vanga in the thirteenth century. It was excavated in 1977, and contains pieces of the outer walls, remains of the mosaic flooring and fragments of sculptures.