Italy Guide
Umbria
The Duomo
Opening time: April– June Mon– Sat 9am–12.45pm & 2.30–7.15pm, Sun 2.30–5.45pm; July– Aug same hours but closes 6.45pm on Sun; Nov– Feb Mon– Sat 9am–12.45pm & 2.30–5.15pm, Sun 2.30–5.45pm; March & Oct same hours but closes 6.15pm Mon– Fri
Price: €5
According to tradition Orvieto's awe-inspiring Duomo was built to celebrate the so-called Miracle of Bolsena (1263), when during Mass in a church near Lago di Bolsena, blood started to drip from the host onto the corporale, the cloth underneath the chalice on the altar. However it's more likely that the building of a cathedral in one of the region's most powerful comuni was a shrewd piece of political opportunism designed to remind errant citizens of the papacy's power.
The interior is distinguished by Luca Signorelli's fresco cycle, The Last Judgement (1499–1504) in a chapel at the end o the south nave. Some claim it even surpasses Michelangelo's similar cycle in the Sistine Chapel, painted forty years later and obviously influenced by Signorell. The cycle is on view again after years of restoration, and though you now have to pay for the privilege of seeing it, the admission's more than worth it