Bolzano Cathedral (Duomo)

Gothic cathedral with a diamond-patterned roof and ornate 14th-century tower

Bolzano's Gothic cathedral, built in the 14th and 15th centuries, dominates the old town with its elaborate sandstone tower and its striking diamond-pattern polychrome tile roof. The exterior is richly decorated with carved figures and tracery; the interior is spacious and relatively austere by Italian standards, with frescoed side chapels.

The cathedral's setting at the edge of Piazza Walther makes it an anchor for any walk through the old town. The tower can be climbed for views over the rooftops and the valley walls. The adjacent cloisters, accessible through a doorway beside the main entrance, contain intact Gothic frescoes.

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A story
The cathedral's sandstone tower, completed in 1519, was built in stages over more than a century. The distinctive diamond-pattern tiles on the roof — green and yellow in a geometric arrangement — are a South Tyrolean tradition also seen on the cathedral in Vienna. When Napoleon's troops occupied the city in 1796, they stabled their horses inside the church.

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