The basilica cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta is the duomo of Carpi and the cathedral of the diocese of the same name; it faces piazza dei Martiri. It obtained the dignity of minor basilica in 1979, for the bicentenary of the founding of the diocese.
What to see
Construction began in 1514 at the urging of Prince Alberto III Pio, to a design by Baldassarre Peruzzi, and was finished towards the end of the eighteenth century: the building was consecrated in 1791 by the first diocesan bishop, Monsignor Francesco Benincasa. It stands on the site of an old pieve dedicated to Mary. The façade was completed in the second half of the seventeenth century with Baroque lines, while the tall dome, built in 1768, was lowered in 1771 for structural reasons. The Emilia earthquake of 2012 damaged the building, which reopened for worship on 25 March 2017 with a solemn celebration presided over by Cardinal Pietro Parolin; the following Sunday, 2 April, Pope Francis said Mass on the forecourt before fifteen thousand faithful. In 1988 Pope John Paul II had visited the cathedral.
The three-aisle interior respects Baldassarre Peruzzi's Renaissance design, derived from Saint Peter's basilica in the Vatican. Chapels and altars are enriched by seventeenth-century paintings by Teodoro Ghisi, Matteo Loves, Luca Ferrari, Giacomo Cavedoni and Sante Peranda; the presbytery has been refitted with new liturgical furnishings. In the right aisle, at the level of the transept chapel of Saint Valerian, the marble slabs of the bishops' tombs can be seen; also buried in the cathedral are the general and minister Manfredo Fanti, who died in 1865, and the painter Lelio Rossi.
Visiting
The cathedral is on piazza dei Martiri, in Carpi. Every year, since 1515, on 15 August a service is held with a solemn procession in honour of Mary Assumed into Heaven, patron of the cathedral and of the Carpi church, conducted by the bishop. The sources consulted give no opening hours: check with the parish.
Our editors' tip
Popular devotion is strong not only for the image of the Assunta but for the «Madonna della Porta» (Ianua Coeli), a work detached from Porta Mantova before its demolition in the early twentieth century, for the Addolorata, for the reliquary bust of Saint Valerian, for the relics of Saint Bernardino Realino and for the statue of the Madonna del Carmelo. In 2017 the main relic of the blessed Odoardo Focherini was placed here.
