The story
On the night of 11 November 1561, a mine blew up the Dominican convent of Santo Stefano, just outside one of Bergamo's old gates. Venice, which then ruled the city, was ringing the upper town with the new walls that still stand today, and more than 250 buildings were cleared to make room for them. The friars fought it to the end. Their prior went as far as excommunicating the Venetian commander in charge of the works.
What they saved came down the hill with them. The Dominicans settled at San Bartolomeo in the lower town, and the Baroque church that stands here now, built between 1613 and 1642, carries both saints in its name. In the apse hangs the picture most visitors come for, the Martinengo Altarpiece by the Venetian painter Lorenzo Lotto. Commissioned in 1513 by Alessandro Martinengo Colleoni, a Bergamo captain, and signed in 1516, it stands more than five metres tall, the largest altarpiece Lotto ever painted. The Virgin sits enthroned under a domed architecture, ringed by ten saints, with Saint Alexander, the patron's namesake, in shining armour.
The inlaid choir stalls by the Dominican friar Damiano Zambelli made the same journey from the lost church. The altarpiece's small predella panels did not stay with it. They were sold off in 1749 and are now in the Accademia Carrara, the city's picture gallery.
