Santa Maria del Popolo
In the Julian era the church became again the location of important papal ceremonies. The pope launched his first campaign here on 26 August 1506 and when he returned to Rome after the successful Northern Italian war, he spent the night of 27 March 1507 in the convent of Santa Maria del Popolo. On the next day Julius celebrated High Mass on Palm Sunday in the church that was decorated with fronds of palm and olive branches. The ceremony was followed by a triumphal entry into the city. On 5 October 1511 the Holy League against France was solemnly proclaimed in the basilica. On 25 November 1512 the alliance of the pope with Emperor Maximilian I was also announced in this church in the presence of fifty-two diplomatic envoys and fifteen cardinals. The pope also visited the Madonna del Popolo for private reasons like when he prayed for the recovery of his favourite nephew, Galeotto Franciotti della Rovere in early September 1508.
Santa Maria del Popolo
The 15th-century bell tower is placed at the end of the right transept. The structure was later incorporated into the Neo-Classical monastery that covered the larger part of its body. The tall brick tower was built in Northern Italian style which was unusual at the time in Rome but probably suited the taste of the Lombard congregation. The conical spire, which was built of petal shaped clay bricks, is surrounded with four cylindrical pinnacles with conical caps. These pinnacles have two superimposed rows of blind arcades with cusped brick arches. The spire is crowned with a ball and cross finial with an added weather vane. The top part of the tower shows a strong similarity to the bell tower of the Basilica of San Zeno in Verona. The rectangular tower is articulated by stone cornices. On the top floor it has large arched windows on every side. Only damaged traces of the original stone mullions and ornamental brickwork parapets survived in the openings except on the eastern side where the mullion remained intact. This is a typical biforate window with small Tuscan pillars and a quatrefoil.