Collegiata dei Santi Nazaro e Celso

The church preserves Titian's Averoldi Polyptych above an altar, alongside other major works of the Brescian Renaissance.

Why it matters

A church is documented on this site from 1104, dedicated to two martyrs of the Diocletian persecutions, and its rebirth between 1752 and 1780 gave Brescia one of its most coherent late-baroque spaces, designed by canon Giuseppe Zinelli and abbot Antonio Marchetti. The reason art historians keep coming is the Altare del Santissimo Sacramento: Moretto's Christ with the symbols of the Passion between Moses and Solomon, painted in 1541–1542 for the city's Eucharistic confraternity, hung a few steps from Titian's Averoldi Polyptych, which Cardinal Altobello Averoldi brought to Brescia in 1522.

What to notice

The facade has tall Corinthian columns, a triangular pediment and a balustrade of seven marble statues dating to 1785, with a portal bust of Alessandro Fè d'Ostiani carved by Beniamino Simoni in 1786. Inside, Corinthian columns and round arches frame five chapels on each side. The vestibule contains neoclassical confessionals and organ doors by Paolo da Caylina. Titian's Averoldi Polyptych shows the resurrected Christ with an Annunciation, St Sebastian, Saints Nazaro and Celso, and the donor; its frame dates to 1824–1826. Moretto incorporated three inscribed marble tablets into the composition of the Sacrament altar. Antonio Calegari's statue of St John of Nepomuk, installed in 1762, completes the sculptural programme.

Context and history

The dedication reaches back to two early martyrs: Nazaro, a Roman disciple of Peter, baptised the French-born Celso, and both died together in the persecutions of Diocletian. A collegiate church — served by a college of canons rather than a monastic community — grew here in the medieval period, recorded by 1104. The eighteenth-century rebuilding transformed it into the ordered, brightly lit hall visible today, finishing with the statue programme of 1785 and the portal bust of 1786. The church also carries a treasury of relics, including the Arca di sant'Apollonio and the Croce di San Faustino recorded in the diocesan inventory, linking it to the cult of Brescia's patron saints celebrated nearby. It is included in the diocesan Museo diffuso network.