CATHEDRAL SAN LORENZO
The city's cathedral, with its traditional bichrome facade, is a happy mixture of styles and a setting for precious works of art.
Built between the 12thand 14thcenturies on earlier Romanesque foundations, San Lorenzo Cathedral is in the traditional Ligurian Gothic style. Only the two portals along the side aisles bear witness to the building's Romanesque past, as do the alternating black and white bands on the walls.
Three Gothic portals open onto the facade: the central one is adorned with Christ resting on the representation of St. Lawrence's martyrdom on the grill. Two large stone lions flank the steps leading up to the Duomo. These sculptures and the staircase were added in 1840 following the construction of Via San Lorenzo and the successive lowering of the square's level.
Inside, the elevation follows the binary black-and-white logic of the large arcades and triforium. There's a constant oscillation between paucity and decorative richness. On the counter-façade, a remarkable 14th-century fresco depicts the Universal Judgment and the Coronation of the Virgin. On the left side of the nave is the chapel of St. John the Baptist, where the presumed ashes of the saint are preserved.
The transept and choir are sumptuously decorated with marble, stucco and gilding. Luca Cambiaso, one of the greatest exponents of Ligurian Mannerism, was responsible for the marvellous 16th-century frescoes decorating the chapel to the left of the beautiful Baroque choir(Assumption, Coronation of Mary, Saints and Prophets), while in the presbytery Lazzaro Tavarone painted the martyrdom of Saint Lawrence in 1622.
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