The first traces of the Cathedral date back to the year 923. The building owes its current appearance to subsequent modifications carried out during the 12th, 14th and 15th centuries.
The portico, which includes a terracotta Madonna and Child (1505) by Andrea della Robbia, was built in the 14th century. Two marble statues of Saint James, on the right, and Saint Zeno, on the left, stand on the top of the façade.

The Cathedral is home to some of the city’s most important vestiges of the cult of Saint James. The most impressive of these is certainly the silver altar, one of the most prominent works of Italian and European Gothic goldsmithery, the construction of which began in 1287 and continued throughout the 14th and 15th centuries.