Portico dei Servi

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Portico dei Servi
Santa Maria dei Servi
Strada Maggiore
Bologna, June 2015

“A remarkable feature of the church is its courtyard or atrium. This is a feature that was common in Early Christian churches, including the earlier St. Peter's Basilica in Rome, but has almost always disappeared. This is an unusual case of an atrium being built in the 16th century. It appears to have been modelled on the arcade built by Brunelleschi at the Hospital of the Innocents (Ospedale degli Innocenti) in Florence, and later extended to other parts of the large piazza, including the front of the Church of the Assumption. In the case of Santa Maria dei Servi, the piazza in front of the basilica was quite small—which permitted building a wide arcade around it that encloses the entire square without interruption. The arcade is closed on one side by the conventual buildings, but on two sides it is open to the street, and extends along the entire left side of the building. Where the arcade meets the facade, it forms a ‘narthex’ or wide portico of five arches, stretching across the front of the church. The arcade has a decorative cornice and circular moulding on the spandrels echoes the ocular window in the facade.” (Santa Maria dei Servi, Wikipedia)