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Church of San Domenico, Piazza XXIX Marzo, Orvieto.
The church of San Domenico, located in Orvieto, Piazza XXIX in March, was built in the thirteenth century and consecrated in 1234 by Thomas Aquinas. It was dedicated to St. Dominic the following year, after the canonization of the saint. In 1311 it was partially destroyed by fire and rebuilt in the fifteenth century. The most important changes, however, were made in 1934, when the Church was very resized to make room for women at the Academy of Physical Education.
The facade, in Gothic style, is very developed in height and covered with a curtain of tufa Orvieto in flat parts, while the structural elements are marked by rows of basalt and travertine. The Gothic portal is surmounted by a lunette in which is represented a Madonna and Child of the fifteenth century.
Inside the church, once three aisles, today a single nave, it houses the chair where St. Thomas held his theology lessons in the years to Orvieto. You can also admire the monument erected by Arnolfo di Cambio in 1282 by the bishop De Braye, featuring elegant mosaic decorations. The walls of the chapels still retain frescoes of the Umbrian school of the XIV-XV century.
From the church comes the beautiful Altarpiece with Madonna, Child and Saints by Simone Martini (1323-1324), now preserved in the Museo dell’Opera del Duomo.
Under the high altar there is the burial chapel of the Petrucci family, built between 1516 and 1518 and designed by Michele Sanmicheli.
