Santa Maria della Vita and the Lamentation

The church was founded in the 13th century next to one of Bologna's first hospitals, established by a confraternity of lay people, the Battuti. The building you see today is Baroque, with a great dome designed by one of the Bibiena family, and it's tucked away among the shops of the Quadrilatero, the medieval market behind Piazza Maggiore.

Its treasure is the Lamentation over the Dead Christ by Niccolò dell'Arca, the sculptor of the Arca di San Domenico: seven life-size terracotta figures around the body of Christ. The Madonna, John, Joseph of Arimathea and the three Marys weep, cry out, run towards him with their robes blown by the wind. Gabriele D'Annunzio called it a scream in stone.

Upstairs there's the Oratory, with another terracotta group, the Passing of the Virgin by Alfonso Lombardi, and a collection of paintings from the Fondazione Carisbo collections, including the Samian Sibyl by Guercino. A multimedia room tells the story of the complex.

Santa Maria della Vita is part of Genus Bononiae, the route linking the historic palaces in the centre restored by the Fondazione Carisbo. Allow about forty minutes, then step out among the fruit stalls and shops of Via Clavature and Via Pescherie Vecchie.