IL DUOMO

Its entries can be reached by walking through an imposing travertine flight of steps, which surrounds its facade and its right side. On the corner of the steps there is the statue of Ferdinando I dei Medici. which was designed by Gianbologna and made by Francavilla.The Gothic Duomo is situated on the highest part of S. Peter’s Hill, and overlooks the whole town with its massive dimension. Its construction was started at the end of the XII century and completed towards the end of the XVI century.On the contrary the facade was finished only at the end of the XX century by the architect Dante Viviani. Three doors and a central rose window adorn it. Above the main door there is a lunette with an alto-relieve depicting S. Peter (by Enrico Quattrini). On the two sides of the cusp there are the statues of S. Donato and B. Gregorio X. and on the top of the cusp the statue of the Redeemer. All of them were made by G. Cassioli. Both side-doors are overlooked by lunettes: the one on the left depicts the Coronation of the Madonna del Conforto, whereas the one on the right portrays the Lapida-tion of S. Stephen. If we look at the right side of the Duomo more carefully, we can catch a glimpse of the sandstone blocks that were added during the different enlargement phases The door on the right side of the Duomo dates back to the XIV century; above it another lunette with terra-cotta statues and a fresco by S. Castellucci (1650). The polygonal apse is flanked with the bell-tower, which was built in the XIX century, whereas its cusp belongs to the XX century.
The church interior shows three naves without transept, pilasters in many styles and a semi decagonal apse.
 The Renaissance glass windows by Marcillat are one of the main artworks worth seeing in the Duomo. Along the right aisle we can see the funeral monument dedicated to Cardinal Stefano Bonucci, an altar of the XVII century by T.Torri with a painting portraying the Madonna in Glory and Saints (XVIII century) and the sepulchre of Gregorio X dating back to the first years of the XIV century. Then there are two other funeral monuments dedicated to the Bishops Sebastiano Maggi and Benedetto Falconcini. Keeping on walking along the aisle we can see an altar of the XVII century with a painting of S.Francesco and S. Michael Archangel. Soon after this, we can admire a piece of a fresco depicting the Madonna with Child, which Vasari attributed to Lippo Fiorentino (XIV century). Then the Tarlati Chapel dating back to the XIV century, which preserves a fresco by Maestro del Vescovado (first half of the XIV century).The SS. Sacramento Chapel. on the right, was frescoed by Luigi Catalani (1820). Above the high altar the marble altarpiece and the arca of S. Donato, the whole of which were made between the XIII and XIV centuries by artists from Siena, Arezzo and Florence. The S. Silvestro Chapel, on the left, contains the urn preserving the mortal remains of B. Gregorio X. In the left aisle it is possible to admire the wonderful fresco of the Magdalen (about 1464) by Piero della Francesca, the Cenotaph of Bishop Guido Tarlati (1330), the Vasari cantoria (1535). an altar of the XVII century (T:Torri) and a fresco by Luigi Ademollo (beginning of 1800). The Lady Chapel was designed by the Florentine Giuseppe del Rosso and finished during the first years of ‘800; it preserves several della Robbia terra-cottas, marble monuments, paintings by Pietro Benvenuti (1804), Luigi Sabatelli (1806) and frescoes byL.Catalani and L. Ademollo. The high altar was made by Giuseppe Valadier (1823) and bears the worshipped image of the Madonna del Conforto. If we keep on walking beyond this chapel we can sec the funeral monument dedicated to Francesco Redi (end of ‘600), and an altar of the XVII century by T. Torri. In the small baptistery-cum-storage room there is a font with bass-relief’s, one of which depicts the Baptism of Christ, and was attributed to Donatello.