Santa Maria dei Servi, Bologna

It was founded in 1346, as the church of the Servite Community of the Blessed Virgin Mary and was designed by Andrea da Faenza, a head friar and architect who also assisted Antonio di Vincenzo on the monumental Basilica of San Petronio.

It appears to have been modelled on the arcade built by Brunelleschi at the Hospital of the Innocents (Ospedale degli Innocenti) in Florence, and later extended to other parts of the large piazza, including the front of the Church of the Assumption.

In the case of Santa Maria dei Servi, the piazza in front of the basilica was quite small—which permitted building a wide arcade around it that encloses the entire square without interruption.

The many works of art still housed in the church include a Holy Virgin Enthroned traditionally attributed to Cimabue but thought to be a product of his workshop,[1] remains of 14th-century frescoes by Vitale da Bologna and Lippo di Dalmasio, paintings by Innocenzo da Imola and Francesco Albani, and a marble altarpiece of the Annunciation of Mary (1558) by Giovanni Angelo Montorsoli, a pupil of Michelangelo.

[2] The church also possesses a widely praised pipe organ, made in 1967 by the Tamburini company of Crema, which can be operated with a mechanical action.