San Domenico, Città di Castello

San Domenico is a Renaissance and Gothic style, deconsecrated Roman Catholic church and former monastery located on the corner of Largo Monsignor Muzi and Via Luca Signorelli, and adjacent to the Piazza di San Giovanni in Campo, in the center of Città di Castello, region of Umbria, Italy.

History

The Dominican order was introduced in the city in 1269, and was affiliated with a number of different churches. Construction of this austere brick church was begun in 1400 and completed in 1424. The façade is unfinished, on the left side is the square bell tower and the ogival portal date to the fourteenth century. In 1724, the interior was refurbished, removing nine lateral altars. At one time, one of the altars had a Crucifixion by Raphael.^[1]

The church contains mostly fragmentery and restored frescoes inside; in 1911 many of the Baroque additions to the structure where removed. On the left wall, next to the side door, is a depiction of Saint Anthony (1426), facing on the wall opposite, a Crucifixion, both attributed to Antonio Alberti.

On the left side of the nave, there are three chapels with pointed arch entrances, one of which is dedicated to the Fallen in War and retains a 14th-century fresco depicting the Crucifixion with the Virgin and St John.

At the end of the aisle, the two altars guarded each once housing two Renaissance masterpieces, a Crucifixion (1503) by Raphael for the family Gavari, and now in the National Gallery, London; the other, a Martyrdom of Saint Sebastian (1498) by Luca Signorelli, for the family Brozzi and now in the Pinacoteca Comunale.

The main altar of the church contains the tomb of Blessed Margaret (1287-1320), Dominican tertiary, called the Blind of Metola, from the place where she was born. The presbytery houses a precious wooden choir, called the Coro Manno, being carved and inlaid in 1435 by the Florentine Manno Benincasa. Other painters include Sante di Tito and Francesco da Castello.

The adjacent convent still maintains its 17th-century cloister, recently acquired by the City of Città di Castello The lunettes of the inner arches were frescoed between 1662 and 1667, depicting the Life of the Blessed Margherita. Some of them were painted by Giovanni Battista Pacetti other by Salvi, a pupil of Pietro da Cortona.^[2][3]

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