Interior view

The Tempio Civico della Beata Vergine Incoronata in Lodi, Lombardy, is considered one of the masterworks of the Lombard Renaissance art. The church was designed in 1488 by Giovanni Battagio, continued by Gian Giacomo Dolcebuono and finished by Giovanni Antonio Amadeo. It was built at expenses of the Lodi commune, whence the denomination “Civico” (“Municipal”), on the site previously occupied by a brothel.

A centralized, octagonal plan and prolific ornament characterize Battaggio’s design for the church. On each side wedge-shaped pilasters at the vertices of the octagon mark the opening of a trapezoidal chapel. An annular gallery runs around the walls above the chapels, and the building is crowned with an internal dome enclosed within the rectilinear walls of the tiburio. It would appear that the design of the Incoronata was inspired by the imperial mausolea of Milan, and the baptisteries to which Bramante had given a modern interpretation in the sacristy of Santa Maria presso San Satiro, Milan; the illusionistic choir of the latter probably inspired the highly foreshortened perspective scheme of the chapels of the Incoronata.

View the ground plan of the church.