Seminario Vescovile Giovanni XXIII (Episcopal Seminary Giovanni XXIII)

The Episcopal Seminary Giovanni XXIII is located on Colle di S. Giovanni in the historic village of Upper Bergamo.

Over the centuries the educational facility has occupied various locations, and today's complex is only the latest example. In fact, the Bergamo Seminary was founded in 1567, just a few years after the Council of Trent (1545), which made this type of structure a mandatory requirement for all cathedrals; Bergamo's was the seventh seminary to be founded worldwide.

On Oct. 1, 1567, it opened at the Church of San Pancrazio, only to be later transferred, in 1572, to the Seminary on Via Tassis, which owes its name to it. Finally, in 1821, the continued increase in vocations and educational needs of pupils led to its final relocation to the Colle. Here it still towers today, albeit in a new guise: between 1961 and 1966, in fact, the existing buildings were radically renovated according to a project designed by architects Sonzogni and Pizzigoni.

Architecturally, the complex looks like a genuine citadel within a citadel. Stylistically, each of its buildings reinterprets the rhythms of medieval architecture by gradually reinterpreting it from a modern perspective, characterized by large, almost industrial windows. The facade is covered with stone slabs, plaster in various shades and gray trachyte for the window frames.

During the renovation, the existing palazzi Sozzi and Bernareggi, the Church of San Giovanni sul Colle and the facade of Palazzo Bianconi, which was the monumental entrance to the former seminary, were partially preserved.

Other rooms were built from scratch to obtain eight floors, which serve different functions. They house the church, gymnasium, theater, kitchens and underground refectories on one side, and the high school, propaedeutic and theology classrooms and library on the other. On the roofs of the underground structures, however, are the courtyards used for recreation. What connects the different blocks are two ring-shaped galleries, from which stairs and elevators branch off to the various buildings

Emphasizing the spiritual nature of the complex is the underground church, centrally located with respect to the complex: with its ellipsoidal layout, the setting reminiscent of a cave, and the giant stained-glass window that casts its gaze onto the churchyard and, from there, onto the city, it certainly remains memorable.

The seminary is dedicated to the figure of Pope John XXIII, who was its most famous pupil and who encouraged the renovations, although destined never to see them completed. At the inauguration of the new seminary (November 5, 1967), the Pope had in fact already been dead for four years. The majestic life-size statue that watches over the entrance, made in bronze by Stefano Ferrari in 1966, was also dedicated to him, as was one of the chapels in the underground church.