Treviso Cathedral Historical Timeline

Origins

A church has stood here since the sixth century, on the highest ground inside the Roman town. The crypt beneath the present building is eleventh- and twelfth-century and is the oldest surviving part.

Turning points

The cathedral was rebuilt repeatedly -- Romanesque, then a major fifteenth-century reworking, then a late-eighteenth-century remodelling that gave it the domes and the classical portico it wears now.

Influential people

Broccardo Malchiostro, the bishop's secretary, commissioned his funerary chapel in the 1510s and hired Titian for the altarpiece and Pordenone for the surrounding frescoes -- two painters who reportedly disliked each other, working in the same small room.

Cultural evolution

The result is one of the few places where a major Titian sits in its original setting, in the chapel it was painted for, rather than in a gallery.

Present-day significance

The 1944 bombing struck the cathedral and destroyed part of the fabric; the Titian survived. The building remains Treviso's cathedral and is in daily use.