Church
Basilica di Santa Maria dei Servi
Gothic brick basilica with a scarred, disputed Cimabue Madonna beneath a colonnaded portico.
Location
About this audio guide
This guide to the Basilica di Santa Maria dei Servi in Bologna centers on the church's gold-ground Cimabue Madonna, a panel that carried a false signature for centuries. You'll hear about the Servite friars who raised this Gothic basilica on Strada Maggiore, and about the nineteenth-century scholars who finally began arguing over who really painted it. Listen for what generations of worshippers left behind on the wood itself, long before anyone agreed on a name.
This audio guide was created using AI.