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The Campanone, Museum of the Venetian Age and Roman Archaeological Discoveries

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Campanone

Campanone

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The Campanone, Museum of the Venetian Age and Roman Archaeological Discoveries

The Campanone, the Museum of the Venetian Age and the Roman Archaeological area are all accessed by the same door, what would have been the main entrance of the Palazzo del Podestà (the Governor’s Palace) and so it makes sense to allow time to visit all three at the same time.

The information on the Palazzo bemoans the fact that, for some time in the past, it ‘became used for purposes which were not in keeping with its historical importance’ but when it was decided to renovate the building for tourist purposes important archaeological finds were made. As the Christians always built over, and very often using the worked stone from, older Roman buildings it wasn’t a real surprise when Roman remains were found.

Together with the excavations made underneath the Cathedral (which can be seen by visiting the Museum and Treasury) these, more recent discoveries give a fuller picture of what would have been the most important area in the Roman settlement, the Forum.

Roman Archaeological Site

Roman Archaeological Site

This is only a relatively small area but a lot can be seen and deduced about the city known as Bergomum, a name it held for close on 800 years. A fine section of wall was almost certainly part of the Forum and other walls indicate workshops and taverns, as well as gutters and sewers. What I found particularly interesting were a couple of lengths of lead piping used to supply clean water – I couldn’t understand why something so valuable had not been looted hundreds of years ago. Mixed in with the Roman ruins were remains of buildings from Mediaeval times – but no water supply pipes or sewers – the Renaissance period might be important for its artistic development but there was little in the way of civilising everyday life.

Information boards on the walls supply more details, in both Italian and English.

There are a few places where you can get a ‘bird’s eye’ view of the town but the Campanone/Civic Tower is one of the best (rivalled only by the Gombito Tower) as this looks down on both the Piazza Vecchia, with its 18th century Contarini fountain as well as the Piazza del Duomo with the Cathedral, the Basilica de Santa Maria Maggiore, the Colleoni Chapel and the Baptistery.

Colleoni Chapel and Maria Maggiore

Colleoni Chapel and Maria Maggiore

The name Campanone means Big Bell and comes from the biggest of the three bells at the top of the tower. This was originally used to sound the curfew in Mediaeval times and is still sounded at 22.00 each night to try to get the tourists out of the bars in the square below.

Campanone 'Big Bell'

Campanone ‘Big Bell’

There’s now a modern lift to take the pain out of the walk. I’m not sure how they got away with that. It’s all very well making these places accessible to as many people as possible but I’m not in favour of that if it means the destruction of parts of an ancient structure. You can still walk up and down but on modern, concrete steps and not the originals that would have been worn down over the centuries. It really changes the atmosphere as you go to the top.

I’m sure the lift wasn’t there when I first went up 4 or 5 years ago but couldn’t get the exact information as the lad in the ticket office wasn’t sure. World Heritage Status (which I don’t think Bergamo has) isn’t enough to protect the past – as I’ve mentioned elsewhere – but there surely has to be a limit to what can be done in the name of accessibility. And I’m cynical enough to think that these works are carried out more for the potential tourist Euros than anything else.

Piazza Vecchia

Piazza Vecchia

Try to go up and down on the steps, it’s probably better for your health, even if you take it slowly. At the top you get a fine view of the major buildings in the centre of Città Alta as well as the newer town in the valley and the snow-capped – there was still a fair amount of snow on some of the tops when I was there during the first week of May – Alps to the north.

The third place to visit in the Palazzo del Podestà is the very new and high-tech Museum of the History of the Venetian Age. To me this was a huge disappointment. It advertises itself as ‘interactive’ but I found myself being assaulted by information in a way I’ve not experienced at any other museum I’ve ever visited.

It uses the most modern aspects of computer graphics, it’s imaginative, it’s very clever but it did nothing for me. The interactivity comes from: moving your hands over different names; opening drawers to operate a projector to show contents; placing blocks into slots to initiate information about the development of printing during the height of Venetian economic and political power. There’s also a very clever presentation about the sort of recipes that were created with the arrival of all the new foods and spices in Europe from the Orient due to Venice’s role in international trade.

Museum of Venetian Age

Museum of Venetian Age

There’s a audio-video presentation which follows a timeline from 1450 to 1600 showing how the rest of the world became known to the Europeans with the travels of Marco Polo by land and then Megellan, Vasco de Gama, Columbus and Vespuccio, amongst others, by sea. This is informative and does provide a visual picture of how the world seemed to be getting bigger for the Europeans.

When it comes to the victory of Cortes over the Aztecs and Pizarro’s over the Incas it becomes more political than I’ve seen in any such presentation in what would be considered a museum for general consumption. Central America becomes splattered with blood as does the north-west Pacific coast of South America. This trail of blood then goes back across the Atlantic to land on Spain’s door step, with the commentary that this was all due to the thirst for gold.

Now that’s all true and it’s good to see it being presented as such. However, I doubt whether that would have been presented in the same way if it were the Italians who had first landed on Hispaniola. By holding a virtual monopoly over trade with the Far East Venice had, more or less, encouraged other countries to get into the world exploration game. Instead of investing in the future Venice stuck with what it knew and controlled and therefore not going out into the unknown.

There’s also an element of sour grapes as this gold, paid for with so much indigenous American blood, was what eventually kicked started the economic development (and ultimately the industrial revolution) in the UK and northern Europe – aided in a not insignificant manner by the activities of ‘El Pirata’ Francis Drake.

However interesting that particular section might have been I honestly felt there was a lot missing. To have gained much more you would have had to have invested a lot of time and energy in playing with the technology. Perhaps someone brought up on computer games might find it interesting, it was probably designed by such people, but it left me cold.

Also everything was in Italian although English language tablet computers and earphones are available.

Practical Information:

Opening times:

November to March

Tuesday – Friday 09.30 – 13.00 and 14.30 – 18.00

Weekends and public holidays 09.30 – 18.00

April – October

Tuesday – Friday 09.30 – 18.00

Weekends and public holidays 09.30 – 20.00

Closed: Mondays, except for holidays.

Entrance:

Archaeological Area – Free

Campanone

General €3

Under 18 – free

Museum of History of the Venetian Age

General €5

Under 18 – free

There’s a Joint Ticket that covers these three locations as well as the La Rocca – the museum of the 19th century; the Donizetti Museum; and the Former Convent of San Francesco which costs €7.

Entrance to all these places are free with the Bergamo card.

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The Adriano Bernareggi Diocesan Museum of Sacred Art

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Saint Lucy

Saint Lucy

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The Adriano Bernareggi Diocesan Museum of Sacred Art

The Museo Diocesano d’Arte Sacra Adriano Bernareggi (Adriano Bernareggi Diocesan Museum of Sacred Art) is only a short distance from the Cittá Alta. Based on the collection of a Bergamo Bishop (who gives his name to the museum) from the 1930s onwards it contains exhibits not really seen elsewhere in the city.

Located in one of the old palazzos it has a somewhat eccentric arrangement of rooms but if you try to visit the rooms in their numbered sequence you should see all there is. There was obviously no specialisation in the collecting process – basically if it was religious it was in. There are the normal objects and paintings that you might have seen in other Italian museums but there were a few objects that were either new to me or which I consider worthy of mention due to their unusual characteristics or a piece of information that made me think in a slightly different way.

Before mentioning them there’s one point I’d like to make. The collection is curated in a way so that it’s a theme that dominates a room, not the period or even the type of object. To the entrance of the room there’s an introduction to the theme then you’re left on your own. There’s no information about the exact period, if a known artist or any guidance of what the object might be depicting. To get a better understanding of the collection you need to call on your own knowledge or experience.

In the room of the Saints there are paintings from different epochs but what they all have in common, that is if the Saint had died a martyred death, is that they either appear holding the instrument of their demise, almost always with a serene look on their face, or else an almost surreal depiction of the ordeal they went through. Whenever I see them, or indeed Christ on the cross, I think of the comments on this idea of remembrance by the deceased American comedian Bill Hicks. He used to wonder what Christ think if, on the second coming, he was surrounded by people with images of his torture around their necks.

As neighbours on the wall were a small group of female saints. Saint Barbara (or it could be Saint Agatha – misogyny in the early – and not so early – Catholic Church meant that female saints suffered a litany of tortures before their end), during her ordeal, had her breasts cut off and she is depicted with a pair of breasts, looking more like the polenta e osei sold in the cake shops in Cittá Alta, defying gravity and sticking to a bloodied sword.

Saint Barbara

Saint Barbara

In the same group is Saint Lucy who had her eyes gouged out and they are depicted threaded onto a stiletto like knife which she herself holds. A third in the group, at least the ones I thought I recognised, was Saint Agatha (or Saint Apollonia) who was recorded as having her teeth pulled out. It really gets quite confusing and some indication of the intention of the painter, at least, would have helped.

One thing I learnt in my visit to this museum was the fact that the cross, and more especially the crucifixion, as a representation of Christ was something that developed in the 4th/5th centuries as the religion became more organised, more structured, more hierarchical. Before that the early Christians had used symbols such as a fish (which I knew about before as a Catalan friend had brought that to my attention), doves or loaves of bread to represent God/Son/Holy Ghost. As the religion was supposed to one of peace and the love of mankind these images make much more sense and even give an impression of caring. However, they lost out to the failing Roman Empire which hitched its horse to a rising movement and, effectively, took it over and slotted in an imperial structure and bureaucracy. It worked. It’s still there in Vatican City.

Something I’ve only seen in Bergamo (although I’m open to the fact that they appear elsewhere) is the so-called ‘macabre’ paintings. These are basically paintings of skeletons in various forms of dress as it they are, perhaps not living in the sense that’s generally accepted (before the banal vampire films and TV programmes became ubiquitous) but at least taking part in daily life. In Room 15 there are 8 large paintings covering all social classes, but with an emphasis on the rich and powerful, including kings and popes, presumably with the argument that death is the only true leveller but society would be a more civilised if we did the levelling prior to the appearance of the Grim Reaper. The only other place I’ve seen these ‘macabre’ paintings is in the church of Santa Grata Inter Vites, also in Bergamo, in Borgo Canale.

'Macabre' Pope

‘Macabre’ Pope

I must have now seen hundreds of Romanesque, painted, wooden statues of the Madonna and Child. They are charming and always interesting as their evolution from the early Romanesque period up to the Renaissance shows a re-learning of the skills lost with the too rapid destruction of the Roman Empire. The small group of wooden statues in Room 17 are unique as far as I’m concerned.

The information supplied by the museum stresses the fact that these statues were massed produced but most of them must have ended up as fire wood as I’ve never come across them before. They are incredibly modern. Although the Madonna is dressed in the fashion of the 18th/19th centuries they have aspects that wouldn’t look out of place today.

They are, roughly, two-thirds life-size, standing (which was very rare in the Romanesque period when these statues had their heyday) and very life-like. As well as the dress the hairstyles were of the period so it seems an attempt to place the Madonna in the ‘now’ and not making her something apart from ordinary women. In a way going back to the ideas of the early Christians before the religion was formalised.

And sexy – in the Jessica Rabbit sort of way. One, in particular, has a very slim waist and curves that were emphasised in fashion models – before ‘size zero’ and androgynous became the norm.

For people new to such a museum I’m sure they would find more of interest. By now I’ve seen a lot of this art and, perhaps, am becoming too blasé.

A smallish but nonetheless interesting and worthwhile place to visit if in Bergamo.

Practical Information

Address: Via Pignolo, 76

Opening hours:

Tuesday – Sunday 09.30 – 12.30 and 15.00 – 18.30

Closed Monday

Entrance:

General €5

65 plus (with ID) €3

Free entry with the Bergamo Card.

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Three days in Bergamo, Lombardy, Italy

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The Bergamo Skyline

The Bergamo Skyline

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Three days in Bergamo, Lombardy, Italy

Three days in Bergamo, Lombardy, Italy. What to do? Where to go? What do you need to know? How much will it cost? From the links below you will be able to find the information, practical hints, tips, suggestions of visits and food, etc., to make a full three day visit to the northern Italian city, in the foothills of the Orobie Alps and about 45 kilometres to east of Milan, an enjoyable experience.

Most of the principal tourist historical, cultural and artistic attractions are to be found in the Città Alta (the High City, also known as the Old Town – although there is evidence of ancient settlements where contemporary development is taking place)) the walled mediaeval city built on the top of one hills that commanded the trade routes in times past. The old city got its Venetian Walls during the 16th century and they dominate any aspect from afar. As the politics of the country changed (especially after Italian Unification – Risorgimento – of the 1860s) more expansion took place below the hill and this is where you’ll find locations dominated by 19th century architecture, including some of the most important art galleries such as the Accademia Carrara, the Museo Diosesano Adriano Bernareggi and the Galleria d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea di Bergamo (GAMeC). Also in this area you’ll be able to see the Monument to the Partisan, by Giacomo Manzù, and the Teatro Donizetti, the local opera house.

In Città Alta you’ll find: the Duomo (Cathedral); the Colleoni Chapel – the mausoleum of the mercenary Bartolomeo Colleoni; the Campanone (The Big Bell) and The Gombito, two towers dating back to mediaeval times; the Contarini Fountain; the Baptistery, dating back to the 14th century – but not in the same place; the library; locations connected to the life of Gaetano Donizetti (the bel canto opera composer); the Palazzo della Regione; a number of interesting churches, including the Romanesque San Michele al Pozzo Bianco, with its frescoes, the church of Santa Grata Inter Vites, with its macabre paintings behind the main altar, the tiny church of Santa Croce and the huge Basilica de Santa Maria Maggiore – which challenges the Cathedral in its decoration and splendour; as well as a number of comic, interesting, sometimes bizarre and unusual examples of ‘street art’ – long before Banksie people were painting the outsides of buildings just for the sake of it and as a relief to the mundanity of their lives.

The old city is tiny and the only way to see it, and that’s because there’s no alternative transport to take you through the narrow streets and alleyways, is on foot. However, it’s not a logistical problem to get around the more dispersed attractions of the new town and guidance will be provided about how to do that in the most convenient and cheapest way possible. This will include the quaint funicular railway which takes some of the pain out of climbing the steep hills and allows you to get to the highest point in the old city at the Castello di San Vigillio.

Eateries exist in the Città Alta but they are almost exclusively directed towards the tourist trade and may not, for that reason, most may not be particularly good value for money. However, I went to one restaurant in the new town and one in the old town. One day I choose snack food and a picnic at San Vigilio.

Accommodation reports will be limited to one. I am staying at the Nuovo Ostello della Gioventu di Bergamo, part of Hostelling International to which the Youth Hostel Association (YHA) of the UK is affiliated. Although on the outskirts of the new town there’s a couple of very convenient bus routes (the 6 and the 3) that can get you to both the old and the new town without a lot of pain, the No 3 to the Citta Alta having its terminus at the bus stop immediately outside the hostel. If you don’t mind sharing dormitory accommodation for a few nights it provides all you really need, a clean, comfortable and convenient place to lay your head.

Bergamo easily has enough to keep someone with wide and catholic tastes busy for a full three days. More than that you might find yourself retracing your steps a bit too often. However, generally it’s a pleasant location and it’s not too bad a choice as a base to explore some of the surrounding historic towns such as Brescia or Carravaggio or even for a swift day trip to Milan.

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