In 1470 Alberti produced designs for the basilica of Sant'Andrea in the centre of Mantua. The site was particularly important to Ludovico Gonzaga (1412-1478), marquis of the city, because it stood close by the Gonzaga palace and contained a relic, the supposed Blood of Christ.
Alberti's design for the façade of Sant'Andrea, like that of the Rimini Temple for Sigismondo Malatesta, draws its inspiration from Roman triumphal arches, but the Mantuan church takes the idea much further, its design at once more monumental and more complex, adapting a classical form rather than seeking to replicate it. The huge central arch of the exterior portico, with its coffered barrel vault, prefigures the height and vault of the nave. It is flanked by proportionately smaller openings, which also correspond to the church's internal structure, and by a giant order of paired Corinthian pilasters