Duomo di Orvieto, Cattedrale di Santa Maria Assunta
Miracle of Bolsena
Miracle of Bolsena
This cruciform cathedral is a large 14th century structure designed by Lorenzo Maitani and many others, in the isolated town of Orvieto in Umbria, central Italy. Papal patronage resulted in its construction. Many pilgrims were drawn by the legend of a miraculous bleeding of the communion bread, the Host, that revealed the reality of the sacrament to a doubting priest. The blood-stained altar cloth of this "Miracle of Bolsena" (also depicted by Raphael in the Vatican) is venerated in a side chapel. Fra Angelico and Luca Signorelli were given painting commissions. The latter completed well-known depictions of the Anti-Christ, the Apocalypse, and the Last Judgment. His frescoes also include notable figures: Dante, Petrarch, Raphael, Columbus, and a self-portrait. The cathedral walls, apart from the facade, have striking, alternate layers of the local white travertine and blue-gray basalt stone.