The Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore is a church located in Bergamo Alta, in Piazza del Duomo. Built in the second half of the twelfth century, the exterior preserves the original Romanesque-Lombard architectural lines, while the interior is decorated in Baroque style. It was originally the baptismal church of the cathedral of San Vincenzo, built next to the complex of the bishop's curia of Bergamo.

According to popular tradition, partially substantiated by documents, the church was built to comply with a vow made to Our Lady in 1133 by the Bergamasks to protect Bergamo from the plague that was falling on Northern Italy.
But the church is already existing in the eighth century as documented by Mario Lupo in his Codex diplomaticus civitatis et ecclesiae bergomensis published in 1784. The church is built over a pagan temple dedicated to the goddess Clemenza.

The inscription on the portal of the southern entrance (known as the "White Lions") dates back the reconstruction of the basilica to 1137 by the work of the magister Fredo. Maggiore was added to the church which was called Santa Maria, to indicate its reconstruction and expansion. The church was destroyed and built: «dirutta ut pulchriorre reheddifficaretur».

In the basilica were also held the assemblies of the people, according to a practice widespread during the period of free communes, but at the end of the thirteenth century the political situation changed, Bergamo passed to the Visconti, then to the Venetian Republic; the basilica gradually lost its political-social role and remained only the spiritual one.

Source: Wikipedia