Cremona
This is a very ancient City with many magnificent palaces. The art of decorative terracotta, the schools of painting and miniature and its lute masters made it famous as an intellectual and artistic centre, especially between the 15th and 17th Century.
NOT TO MISS
The Baptistery: this is a Romanesque octagonal building. On the outside it has undergone some decorative tamperings, but on the inside it is practically intact; the font dates back to the 16th Century.
The Cathedral: this was planned and began to be built with the plant of a Basilica, but towards 1350 particularly wide transepts were added, which produced a building with four wings nearly all the same, one of which is occupied by apses. The main façade is rich with marbles and decorated with sculptures. The façades of the transepts are made of brick. On the inside, with a nave and two aisles, it is interesting to see the tapestries on the pillars of the 17th Century; the frescoes by Boccaccino; a “Deposizione” (Deposition) by Pordenone on the counterfaçade; the carved and inlaid wooden choir of 1490; in the left transept there is a “Deposizione” (Deposition) by A. Campi; in the Crypt there is the “Arca dei Santi Pietro e Marcellino” (The Tomb of Saint Peter and Saint Marcellino).
The Loggia of the Soldiers: it is a Gothic brick construction with ogival arches on the ground floor, whereas on the first floor, it has a mullioned two-light window and merlon finishings.
The Municipal Museum: it is in the Affaitati Palace of 1561, which has a scenografic grand staircase with several flights of stairs, in various rooms there is the picture gallery with works by Italian Schools and foreign artists. A hall is dedicated to Giovanni Carnovali , knownas “ I l Piccio”. The Municipal Museum, also includes the Treasure of the Cathedral, which is important for the miniated coats by the local School of the 15th Century, a section dedicated to the Italian Risorgimento and an archeological section with finds of excavations carried out in this area
Stradivarian Museum: it gathers a great deal of documents and relics of the musical life of remona and particularly of Stradivari, the great lute player, famous world-wide.
The Major Hospital: this is made up of a system of buildings, which includes the Gothic Church of St. Francesco, transformed and reduced to a nave, which the architect Rodi standardized into the neoclassical style in 1785.
The Town Hall: this is a brick building with large Gothic windows which has been transformed and restored. Some halls have paintings and furniture dating back to the 16th and 17th Century.
Piazza del Popolo: this is a Gothic construction which has been changed many times, with a ground-floor portico, large three-light windows and a merlon crowning.
Fodri Palace: this is a renaissance building with a façade made of brick and marble, a small graven marble portal and, under the cornice there are circles with terracotta busts.
