Basilica di Sant'Andrea, Mantua

Designed by the architect Leon Battista Alberti, this church is a landmark of Renaissance architecture, its façade modelled on a Roman triumphal arch. The vast barrel-vaulted nave was intended to recall the grandeur of ancient temples. It houses a relic said to be the blood of Christ, venerated in an elaborate crypt. A distinctive detail is the single enormous coffered vault spanning the nave without side aisles, an ambitious echo of antiquity that made the church a model for later Baroque builders.