Basilica Collegiata dei Santi Bartolomeo e Gaetano
Baroque church of soaring domed frescoes, home to a small Guido Reni Madonna stolen and recovered twice.
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About this audio guide
This guide to the Basilica Collegiata dei Santi Bartolomeo e Gaetano in Bologna follows a small Guido Reni Madonna known as Mater Amabilis, stolen from the Suffragio chapel by thieves who climbed the bell tower one July night in 1855, during a cholera epidemic that had made her the city's most revered image. It traces the five-year search that ended when the Bolognese painter Ceccoli and sculptor Bezzi recognized her in a London gallery, and the effort by Bolognese benefactors abroad to bring her home. Look up at the frescoes above the same left-transept chapel, painted only a few years before the theft itself.
This audio guide was created using AI.