Spoleto Cathedral

Cathedral of Saint Mary Assumption
Cattedrale di Santa Maria Assunta

West front of Spoleto Cathedral
Basic information
Location Spoleto, Italy
Geographic coordinates 42°44′07″N 12°44′26″E / 42.73528°N 12.74056°E / 42.73528; 12.74056Coordinates: 42°44′07″N 12°44′26″E / 42.73528°N 12.74056°E / 42.73528; 12.74056
Affiliation Roman Catholic
Rite Roman
District Archdiocese of Spoleto-Norcia
Ecclesiastical or organizational status Cathedral
Architectural description
Architectural type Church
Architectural style Romanesque

Spoleto Cathedral (Italian: Cattedrale di Santa Maria Assunta; Duomo di Spoleto) is the cathedral of the Archdiocese of Spoleto-Norcia created in 1821, previously that of the diocese of Spoleto, and the principal church of the Umbrian city of Spoleto, in Italy. It is dedicated to the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

The church is essentially an example of Romanesque architecture, with a nave and two side-aisles crossed by a transept, although subsequently modified. It was built from the second half of the twelfth century after the city had been devastated by Frederick Barbarossa's troops, over an area where there had previously stood an earlier cathedral, dedicated to Saint Primianus (San Primiano)[1] and destroyed by the emperor. A notable external porch and the belfry were added in the fifteenth and sixteenth century respectively.

The façade is divided into three bands. The lower one has a fine architraved door with sculpted door-posts. Two pulpits are provided on each side of the porch. The upper bands are separated by rose windows and ogival arches. The most striking feature of the upper façade is the mosaic portraying Christ giving a Benediction, signed by one Solsternus (1207). The part of the belfry contemporary with the church reuses Roman and early medieval elements.

The interior was significantly modified in the 17th-18th centuries. It has kept the original Cosmatesque floor of the central nave and the frescoed apse. The paintings of the latter were finished in 1467–1469 by Filippo Lippi and his pupils Fra' Diamante and Piermatteo Lauro de' Manfredi da Amelia: they depict scenes from the Life of the Virgin. Lippi is buried in the south arm of the transept.

Also noteworthy are the altar cross by Alberto Sozio, dated 1187, a Byzantine icon donated to the city by Barbarossa as a sign of peace and the frescoes by Pinturicchio in the Chapel of the Bishop of Eroli. Other frescoes from the 16th century are in the next chapel. The church also contains a polychrome wood statue of the Madonna (14th century) and a choir (16th century) with painted altar and tabernacle, in the Chapel of the Relics, under which lies the crypt of the former cathedral of San Primiano.

Notes

  1. ↑ Saint Primianus is one of three saints with origins in Larino in Molise; his feast is still celebrated there on May 15, but the chapel dedicated to him is on the outskirts of the town. The historical account suggests that his remains were stolen from Larino by the citizens of nearby Lucera after Larino had been ravaged by Saracens. The Larinesi, going out to reclaim their patron, made off instead with Lucera's San Pardo, returning home with him in an ox-cart wreathed with flowers. In the hagiography it becomes the living Primianus who fled Larino, pronouncing a curse on its citizens, an inversion to account for San Pardo's primacy in Larino's twelfth-century cathedral. (Ricci)
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