Santa Maria Maggiore is a Renaissance basilica a short walk west of the Duomo, built in the 1520s by the same Bernardo Cles who reshaped the Castello del Buonconsiglio. It is the church in which the third and final session of the Council of Trent — the most theologically active of the three — met under Pope Pius IV in the 1560s.
The interior is a single high nave under a coffered ceiling, with a notable organ on a carved gallery and a large painting by the local artist Giovanni Battista Moroni of the Council in session. The bell tower next door is the second-tallest medieval tower in the city and gives a quieter alternative to the Duomo's belfries.