The inside of this magnificent Cathedral is just as impressive as the exterior.
The building has a basilican, or rectangular, ground plan, divided into three naves by high pillars topped by rib vaults.
Along the side nave, to your right just a few meters from the entrance, you’ll see a long stairway carved into the thickness of the wall, visible through the elegant arches that separate it from the area you are standing in. This strikingly decorative stairway leads to the gallery built above the rose window of the facade and the inside of the bell tower, which houses ten bells. The left nave also has a stairway carved into the wall like the one on the right.
If you continue along the right nave, you’ll come to the Crucifix Chapel, which you’ll easily recognize thanks to the wrought iron gate across the entrance. Inside this square seventeenth-century chapel, topped with a large frescoed dome, on the large marble altar, is a wooden crucifix of particular importance not only for Trento, but for Catholics worldwide: it is the crucifix before which the decrees of the Council of Trent were promulgated, ushering in the long process of the Counter-Reformation, which laid the foundations of Catholic doctrine for the next four centuries. The Cathedral hosted the sessions of the Council of Trent from 1545 to 1563.
On the high altar, you can admire the striking baldachin supported by spiraling columns, designed by Cristoforo Benedetti in the 18th century. It is a small-scale copy of the more famous one created by Gian Lorenzo Bernini for Saint Peter’s Basilica in Rome.
On the left wall, don’t miss the fourteenth-century frescoes, painted in the style of Giotto, depicting the legend of Saint Julian and other religious scenes.
An interesting fact: the three saints whose remains are buried in the Cathedral - Sisinius, Marturius and Alexander – all suffered horrible deaths. Sent to the region to spread Christianity, they were killed by the local, pagan population during sacrificial rites.
