CATTEDRALE SANTA MARIA ASSUNTA

The Duomo of Spoleto is the most important monument of the city, built in the 12th century in Romanesque style. It can be discovered during a walk that leads to the fortress-palace, the "Rocca", which overlooks Spoleto. Its luminous façade, pierced by eight rose windows and dominated by the impressive Solsterno mosaic (13th century), is preceded by a portico and a stone bell tower with clean lines of Renaissance origin. The Cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta stands majestically at the end of a grand staircase in the Piazza del Duomo. Its recent restoration allows to better appreciate the white and pink tones of the marble.

The three-aisled baroque interior was clumsily altered in the 17th century. There is a fresco of the Madonna e i Santi(Virgin and Saints) by Pinturicchio (a pupil of Perugino), a bust by the sculptor Bernini and, above all, the superb frescoes in the apse: Il Presepio(The Nativity), the Annunciazione, Il Transito di Maria and the Incoronazione, masterpieces of Fra Filippo Lippi (a Florentine painter of the early Renaissance), who is buried here in the right transept. The artist's tomb was designed by his son, Filippino. In the centre of the presbytery is the polychrome marble high altar, the work of the Italian architect, planner and archaeologist Giuseppe Valadier (1792), flanked by four tall pillared columns. In the chapel of the relics, a letter written by San Francesco's hand is preserved.