Spoleto Cathedral: The Mother Church of Spoleto in Italy
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.7
- Popularity
- Medium
- Country
- Italy
- Primary era
- Medieval
- External website
- Open
- Eras represented
- Medieval, Early Modern
- Civilizations
- Holy Roman Empire, Papal States
- Site type
- Religious
- Remains
- Cathedral
On this page23 sections
History
Spoleto Cathedral, officially the Cathedral of the Assumption of Mary, is the principal Catholic church of Spoleto, Italy, and the mother church of the Archdiocese of Spoleto-Norcia. The present building was constructed in the Romanesque, or Longobard, tradition during the later twelfth century, with a recorded foundation date of 1067 and construction extending from 1151 to 1227. It became an Italian national monument and has remained an active Roman Catholic cathedral.
Medieval foundations and construction
The cathedral replaced the earlier church of Santa Maria del Vescovato, which dated from the eighth or ninth century. The site was also associated with an earlier cathedral dedicated to San Primiano. That building was destroyed when the forces of Frederick Barbarossa, the medieval Holy Roman Emperor Frederick I, devastated Spoleto.
The Romanesque cathedral was consecrated by Pope Innocent III in 1198. Its facade and campanile were completed at the beginning of the thirteenth century, and the facade reached its present medieval form in 1207, when Solsternus installed and signed its central mosaic. The cathedral formed part of the Vaita De Domo, a medieval civic and religious complex associated with the cathedral quarter.
Renaissance additions and artistic patronage
In 1491, Antonio Barocci and his workshop added the Renaissance portico to the lower facade. The addition increased the building’s magnificence and created a terrace from which the icon of the Virgin could be displayed during civic festivals. The cathedral also acquired important Renaissance artworks. Filippo Lippi began the fresco cycle known as Stories of the Virgin in the apse in 1467, and his pupils Fra Diamante and Piermatteo Lauro de’ Manfredi da Amelia completed it in 1469.
Lippi was buried in the southern transept. Lorenzo de’ Medici, known as Lorenzo the Magnificent, commissioned the painter’s funerary monument, which bears an inscription by the Florentine humanist Angelo Poliziano. Other memorials include the monument to Giovan Francesco Orsini by Ambrogio Barocci and the monument to Fulvio Orsini, bishop of Spoleto from 1563 to 1581.
The cathedral also preserves a Byzantine icon dated to the eleventh or twelfth century. Frederick Barbarossa donated it to the city in 1185 as an act of reconciliation after his earlier sack of Spoleto. This association links one of the cathedral’s central devotional objects with the violent political history of the city and its later restoration of relations with the emperor.
Baroque rebuilding and later completion
The interior was extensively rebuilt between the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Maffeo Barberini, who became archbishop of Spoleto in 1608 and later took the name Pope Urban VIII, initiated the transformation with the help of his nephew Francesco Barberini, who also became archbishop of Spoleto.
From 1638 to 1644, Luigi Arrigucci and Domenico Castelli completely rebuilt the central and lateral naves. Their work substantially changed the earlier basilican arrangement. It also transformed the setting of the Chapel of the Madonna della Manna d’Oro, whose original arrangement had been completed around 1600 and whose vault paintings by Benedetto Bandiera were destroyed during the rebuilding.
The interior works continued toward the end of the eighteenth century. Giuseppe Valadier, an architect associated with Neoclassicism, designed the aedicules in the side aisles, the terminal altars of the transept arms, and the high altar. Pope Pius VI commissioned this work. A large plaque beneath the central rose window on the counterfacade records the seventeenth-century restorations associated with the Barberini.
The cathedral’s principal construction and reconstruction phases therefore extend from the eleventh-century foundation and the Romanesque building campaign through Renaissance additions and the major Baroque and Neoclassical transformations of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Its continuing role under the Archdiocese of Spoleto-Norcia preserves the building’s original ecclesiastical function.
Remains
Spoleto Cathedral has a Latin-cross plan organized around a central nave, two aisles, a transept, a semicircular apse, and a dome without a drum over the crossing. The central nave and transept are covered by barrel vaults with lunettes, while the side aisles use groin vaults. Numerous chapels open from the aisles and transept, combining the surviving medieval structure with Renaissance, Baroque, and Neoclassical decoration.
Facade and bell tower
Romanesque facade
The thirteenth-century facade is a gabled, or hut-shaped, elevation faced with stone blocks. Its upper Romanesque section is divided into two horizontal bands by a cornice resting on blind arches. The lower band contains five rose windows, with the central opening larger than the other four. The upper band has three large pointed niches and three additional rose windows. The pointed forms, the mosaic, and the decoration along the sloping edges introduce Gothic elements into an otherwise Romanesque composition.
The central niche contains Solsternus’s 1207 mosaic of Christ enthroned between the Virgin Mary and Saint John the Evangelist. The artist signed the work with the inscription, “Doctor Solsternus, hac summus in arte modernus.” The Renaissance portico occupies the lower part of the facade between the Chapel of the Assumption and the campanile. It has five round arches separated by Corinthian columns, two small pulpits in side niches, a richly ornamented entablature, and a marble balustrade supporting the upper terrace.
Campanile
The square-plan thirteenth-century campanile stands to the left of the facade. A campanile is a bell tower, and this one has undergone later alterations. Each of its four upper sides contains a bifora, a window divided into two openings, lighting the bell chamber. The tower terminates in an octagonal spire.
Apse, crossing, and transepts
Apse and presbytery
The fifteenth-century semicircular apse lies beyond the crossing at the end of the central nave. Its fresco cycle, Stories of the Virgin, contains four scenes from the life of Mary. Filippo Lippi began the cycle in 1467, and Fra Diamante and Piermatteo Lauro de’ Manfredi da Amelia completed it two years later.
The high altar stands at the center of the presbytery. Designed by Giuseppe Valadier, it is made of polychrome marble and flanked by four tall candlestick columns. A funerary slab for Pietro Gaddi da Forli, a former bishop of Spoleto, lies in the floor in front of the altar.
Right transept and Madonna della Manna d’Oro
The late-eighteenth-century altar at the end of the right transept was designed by Valadier. It contains Madonna della Manna d’Oro with Saint Francis of Assisi and Saint Dorothy, associated with Annibale Carracci and probably executed around 1599 by his pupil Innocenzo Tacconi, possibly with assistance from other pupils. Benedetto Gelosi commissioned the painting in memory of his son Francesco, who died before him in 1591, and Gelosi’s tomb slab remains in the transept floor.
The Chapel of the Madonna della Manna d’Oro occupies the right transept. Its altar is framed by large stone columns with plant-shaped capitals and smaller marble columns supporting an architrave. Angels with spread wings hold a medallion bearing the emblem of the Franciscan Order. The chapel also contains Filippo Lippi’s funerary monument, the monument to Giovan Francesco Orsini by Ambrogio Barocci, and the monument to Fulvio Orsini.
Left transept and San Ponziano
The Chapel of San Ponziano has Valadier’s design of stone columns with plant-shaped capitals, inner marble columns, and an architrave. Angels hold a medallion with the Franciscan motto. The aedicule contains Cristoforo Unterperger’s Saint Pontianus Spared by the Lions, while the opposite wall bears a painting of the Virgin Mary between Pope Clement I and Blessed Gregory.
The two transept arms also contain richly decorated Baroque choir galleries with reliefs, each housing a pipe organ. The right gallery holds the Tamburini opus 142 organ, built in 1932 with pneumatic transmission, 26 stops, two manuals, and a pedalboard. The left gallery contains an eighteenth-century instrument made by the Fedeli family, with mechanical transmission, 16 stops, one manual, and a pedalboard.
Chapels and aisle decoration
Eroli and Assumption chapels
The first bay on one side gives access to the Chapel of Bishop Eroli, which served as the baptistery until 1845. Its frescoes were painted by Pinturicchio in 1497. An adjacent Eroli funerary chapel leads to the Chapel of the Assumption, begun by Costantino Eroli and completed by his successor Francesco Eroli. Its principal wall contains Jacopo Siculo’s Assumption of the Virgin Venerated by Bishop Eroli. Another painting shows the Crucifixion with the Twelve Apostles and Saint John the Baptist.
The Chapel of the Assumption also contains an octagonal baptismal font of Carrara marble. Its decoration includes scenes of the Nativity, Circumcision, Adoration of the Magi, Purification, Flight into Egypt, Christ among the Doctors, and Baptism.
Valadier’s aisle chapels
The Chapel of the Deposition has a Valadier design framed by columns and a triangular pediment. Putti holding a crown of thorns appear above the structure, while Domenico Sorit’s Deposition of Jesus Christ occupies its aedicule. The Chapel of Sant’Andrea Avellino uses pilasters and half-columns beneath an arched pediment, with putti holding a cross between flaming vessels and Bernardino Nocchi’s Death of Saint Andrew Avellino.
The Chapel of the Visitation has columns and a triangular pediment. Its aedicule contains Giovanni Alberti’s Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary to Saint Elizabeth, and the altar was under the patronage of the Ancajani family. The Chapel of Blessed Gregory has pilasters and half-columns beneath an arched pediment, with Pietro Abruzzi’s painting of an angel presenting the Holy Nail to Blessed Gregory.
The Chapel of Saint Andrew the Apostle has Valadier’s columned design and a triangular pediment. Its aedicule contains Jacopo Alessandro Calvi’s painting of the Virgin Mary between Saint Andrew, Saint Francis of Paola, and Saint Anthony of Padua. The Chapel of the Presentation has pilasters and half-columns beneath an arched pediment and contains Antonio Cavallucci da Sermoneta’s Presentation of the Virgin Mary in the Temple.
The Chapel of Saint Anthony of Padua has columns supporting a triangular pediment and a plaster statue of the saint in a niche. The Chapel of the Angels has pilasters and half-columns beneath an arched pediment, with a painting of the Guardian Angel.
Most Holy Crucifix and Saint Rita
The Chapel of the Most Holy Crucifix is a seventeenth-century room containing Alberto Sotio’s 1187 crucifix, painted on parchment mounted on wood. The image is an example of a Christus triumphans, a representation of the crucified Christ in an upright, victorious posture. The chapel also contains a relic associated with Pope John Paul II. A separate chapel dedicated to Saint Rita of Cascia holds a simulacrum, or devotional statue, representing the saint.
Chapel of the Relics
The Chapel of the Relics occupies a room created between 1542 and 1554 and later enhanced by Valadier. It contains Pietro Abruzzi’s Deposition of Jesus Christ, a carved reliquary cabinet by Giovanni Andrea di Ser Moscato, and Francesco Nardini’s frescoes of the Stories of the Virgin on the vault. A 1222 autograph letter from Saint Francis of Assisi to Brother Leo is preserved in a small nineteenth-century shrine-like tabernacle.
Apse chapels and sacred furnishings
Chapel of the Most Holy Icon
The right apse chapel is dedicated to the Most Holy Icon and was sponsored by the Mauri family. Giovan Battista Mola designed its seventeenth-century architecture, which includes fluted columns, a broken double triangular pediment, an inscribed central panel framed by putti and volutes, an arched pediment, and a crowning cross.
The chapel’s dome has gilded stucco rosettes and a richly patterned interior. Crowned statues occupy the side niches, while the Byzantine icon stands at the center beneath a representation of the Paraclete, a Christian title for the Holy Spirit. The decoration includes stucco, frescoes, and a tabernacle by various artists. The statues are attributed to Alessandro Algardi, and busts represent the patrons Andrea Mauri and Livia Zucconi da Camerino.
Chapel of the Most Holy Sacrament
The left apse chapel was created between 1583 and 1632. It contains frescoes by Francesco Refini, including vault paintings dated 1684, stucco by Giovanni da Foligno, paintings by Pietro Abruzzi and Liborio Cioccetti, and a tabernacle by Francesco Giovannelli da Volterra.
Stucco angels carry the Instruments of the Passion, including the column of the Flagellation, the Holy Face or Mandylion, the nails, reed, lance, cross, crown of thorns, and shroud. Four paintings alternate with the statues along the lateral nave. The vault has fifteen painted panels, stucco rosettes, and putto heads, while its upper composition includes angels, cherubs, allegories, a medallion, and a lunette fresco of the Nativity. At the center stands a marble ciborium, a canopied structure over an altar or tabernacle, with a tabernacle, putti, and a gilded aureole representing the Holy Spirit.
Earlier remains and movable features
Crypt of San Primiano
The Crypt of San Primiano is accessible from the rectory and dates to the ninth century. It is the surviving element of the earlier medieval building associated with San Primiano. The crypt has a barrel-vaulted ceiling and preserves contemporary frescoes that may depict the Stories of Saint Benedict and Saint Scholastica.
Later furnishings
The cathedral preserves a fourteenth-century polychrome wooden statue of the Virgin Mary. It also contains a sixteenth-century choir with painted altars and a tabernacle, adding later furnishings to the building’s medieval structure and its successive Renaissance, Baroque, and Neoclassical interventions.
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