Hebrew-English Guide to Soncino

49 THE CHURCHES When the construction of the church started, all the population con- tributed with bequests. After 1527 the local clients were replaced by the duke of Milan Fran- cesco II Sforza and the marquis Massimiliano Stampa. The church, consecrated on 8th September 1528, the day of the nati- vity of the Virgin, by Luca da Seriate, presents a simple façade, with angular buttresses and central pilasters, where there were, in the past, frescoes with the saints Rocco and Cristoforo, now vanished. The portal is made of Rezzato stone and it has got two emblems of the Stampa family and a sculpture that represents the Madonna of the Graces. The bell tower was built in 1515 by Gerardo da Piacen- za. Extraordinary is the painting decoration, commissioned by the Duke as an incredible ex-voto to the Virgin. The area of the presbytery was frescoed in 1530 by Giulio Campi, one of the biggest painters of the XVI century in Lombardia. The frescoes of the side chapels were executed by the Soncinate painter Francesco Scanzi, while the counter-façade was frescoed by the brothers Francesco and Bernardino Carminati with the Univer- sal Judgement.