Parish Church of San Marco Evangelista

Marble treasures and precious carvings

Having undergone extensive renovations over the centuries, the building stands on the site once occupied at the end of the fifteenth century by a chapel dedicated to St Mark. The chapel, with the addition of a bell tower, was entirely rebuilt by the Municipality in 1534. Reconstructed as a fundamentis, it was consecrated again in 1606, but the altars were only restored in the 18th century. The last major renovations, which affected the overall design of the building, took place in the first half of the 20th century, which gave the building its Latin cross layout. The interior consists of a hall divided into three naves, which house marble art treasures (a marble baptismal font from the Renaissance period, the altar of Our Lady of the Rosary created by the Rezzato workshop in the 1830s) and a remarkable carving, conceived according to an architectural structure: the Altar of the Relics, which denotes an attempt to imitate the marble sculpture of the Carboni, famous 18th-century carvers.

Located next to the parish church is the Palazzo Della Loggetta, the ancient seat of the Municipality built by wealthy merchants from Gardone in the 16th century, with the intention of copying, at least in its name, the municipal palazzo of Brescia. It is a fine example of Renaissance architecture, designed in 1538 by  Faustino Soncinelli da Cadignano, one of the most active Brescian architects of the period, to whom the Municipality had revoked some projects related to the parish church in 1537.