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Things to see in
Trento
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In the city
center, the Renaissance buildings have been restored to their
original pastel colors and wooden balconies.
Walls bordered
the whole town and were connected to the Castello Del
Buonconsiglio. Today, part of the medieval city walls is still
visible in Piazza Fiera, along with a circular tower.
The
magnificent Duomo Cathedral of Saint Vigilio was built
around the XII century in Romanesque-Gothic style. It stands on
top of a late Roman basilica which is still viewable in the
underground crypt.
The three
most significant meetings of the Council of Trent, convened to
confront the growth of Protestantism and to establish the
so-called Counter-Reformation, took place in the Duomo between
1545 and 1563.
The
building itself was begun in the thirteenth century but wasn't
completed until the sixteenth. Inside, the arched are a dramatic
touch to an otherwise plain building. There are fresco fragments
in the nave and an enormous carved marble baldachin over the
altar, a replica of the Rome St Peter.
In Piazza
del Duomo we can find some Renaissance Palazzi and
the famous neoclassic Fountain of Neptune.
The Piazza del Duomo is indeed a pleasant square circled by
arcades, shops and caf? and giving onto streets lined with
frescoed palaces, notably via Belanziani, many of them built in
the sixteenth century when Trento was an important market.
The
Museo Diocesano Tridentino e Basilica Paleocristiana housed
in the Palazzo Pretorio includes paintings of the
sessions of the Council of Trent and some carved altarpieces
from the church of San Zeno in the Val di Non. There are some
ornate reliquaries and an impressive cycle of fifteenth-century
Flemish tapestries.
The Church
of Santa Maria Maggiore, dated 1563, is also a magnificent
building which site the congregation of the Council of Trento
held here from the year 1545 to year 1563 by the Catholic Church
in an attempt to curb the rapid progress of Martin Luther's
Reformation.
The
Castello Del Buonconsiglio includes the famous Torre
dell?Aquila with fine gothic frescos depicting the seasonal
months.
It' is
comprises of two castles, the thirteenth-century
Castelvecchio and the extension built in 1530 called the
Magno Palazzo , in which several rooms frescoed with
classical subjects by the Dossi Family and Romanino lead to a
quiet inner courtyard.
Upstairs is
the Museo Provinciale d'Arte, the Ciclo dei Mesi ("Cycle
of the Months") and the Torre d'Aquila where XV century
frescoes show details from farming and courtly life and
soldier?s life.
The ditch
around the castle was the place of execution for two celebrated
Trentini, Cesare Battisti (who also set up the
socialist-irredentist newspaper ?Il Popolo? as a forum for
protest against Austrian rule) and his comrade Fabio Filzi.
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