Duomo of Urbino.
After my visit to the cathedral of Urbino, I am certain that I will receive a high seat in heaven. The reason? Well, I managed to reunite an unfortunate Italian with his wallet. This is what happened. While strolling through the nave of the immense building, I suddenly noticed an object lying on a pew, which turned out to be a leather wallet that was filled to the brim. I immediately traversed the entire Duomo to find the rightful owner. There were not that many visitors at the time, and none of them presented themselves as the owner. However, one woman thought she remembered a man in a pink shirt (una camicia rosa) sitting in the said pew. Together we quickly exited the cathedral to see if the man was still around. Alas, he had vanished into thin air. By now the husband and son of the woman had joined us, and together we searched the wallet for any personal data. In the end, it was a hotel bill that provided a solution, as it contained the man’s name. The son called the hotel, which was so kind as to contact the man – whose name turned out to be Dante – and five minutes later he showed up in front of the Duomo again. I have seldom seen anyone so grateful.
History
The first cathedral of Urbino was the church of San Sergio, a small church, still extant, just outside the city walls and practically next to the house where the painter Raphael was born. In 1021 bishop Teodorico decided to give the Duomo a more central location. He had a new cathedral built on the current spot, though somewhat smaller and with a different orientation. In the second half of the eleventh century bishop Mainardo had the new Duomo enlarged and dedicated to Santa Maria Assunta. A couple of centuries later Urbino had its golden age under Duke Federico da Montefeltro, whose reign lasted from 1444 until his death in 1482. The duke commissioned his court architect Francesco di Giorgio Martini (1439-1501) to rebuild the cathedral in Renaissance style. Work commenced in 1480 or 1481, and the new cathedral was consecrated in 1534. However, its dome was only added in the seventeenth century. It was designed by the local architect Muzio Oddi (1569-1639).
View of Urbino, with the cathedral top centre.
Rear view of the Duomo and ducal palace.
Interior of the Duomo.
Earthquakes in 1781 and 1789 caused heavy damage to the building. The dome collapsed and drastic restoration works were necessary. For this project the architect Giuseppe Valadier (1762-1839) was hired, who provided the Duomo with a brand-new neoclassical interior. In 1801 the restorations were completed. The Duomo had moreover been given an entirely new façade, which had been designed by Camillo Morigia (1743-1795), an architect from Ravenna. The cathedral of Urbino once again became the victim of an earthquake in October of 2016. As a consequence, the building was closed until the end of 2020 for urgent repairs. Although my travel guide calls the Duomo “a big dull neoclassical church”, I can definitely recommend a visit. The building has a number of interesting artworks, most of which date from before Valadier’s renovation. The Duomo is, by the way, the seat of the composite diocese of Urbino-Urbania-Sant’Angelo in Vado. The Duomos in the latter two towns therefore have the status of a co-cathedral.
Things to see
Visitors climbing the stairs to the Duomo are welcomed by the statues of Saint Crescentinus, a soldier-saint supposedly martyred in 303, and Blessed Mainardo, the aforementioned bishop of Urbino who died around 1088. It was Mainardo who, during his episcopate, had the remains of Saint Crescentinus translated from Città di Castello. Crescentinus has been Urbino’s patron saint ever since. He is depicted with a dragon at his feet, for according to legend he defeated such a monster. Several more statues have been placed on the façade. In the centre we see the three theological virtues, Faith, Hope and Charity. They are flanked by statues of Saints Augustinus and John Chrysostom, a fifth-century patriarch of Constantinople. I have not been able to establish why statues of these specific saints were chosen.
Inside the cathedral we find on the left side, among other things, the beautiful baptistery with stucco decorations by Antonio Trentanove (1745-1812). The third altar on the left has a painting of the Byzantine emperor Heraclius with the cross, a work by the Venetian painter Palma il Giovane (ca. 1548-1628). In the left transept we stumble upon a nineteenth-century statuette of Raphael, Urbino’s most famous son, who passed away in 1520 aged just 37. The statuette dates from 1847 and is a work by Carlo Finelli (1782-1853). To the left of the choir, we enter the gorgeous Cappella del Santissimo Sacramento. The highlight here is the painting of the Last Supper by Federico Barocci (ca. 1535-1612). Barocci, who was himself from Urbino, painted it between 1592 and 1599. The work is famous and has been copied many times; we had previously seen a copy in the Duomo of Pergola. The ceiling decorations of the chapel were made by Antonio Viviani (1560-1620), nicknamed il Sordo di Urbino, which means “the deaf of Urbino”. He was also a local painter, but he was not really deaf. The nickname refers to the fact that he worked on his paintings unperturbedly.
To the right of the choir is the Cappella della Concezione. The altarpiece here is a very weathered Madonna and Child from the fourteenth century. The best works are, however, the two canvases on the walls, the Nativity of the Virgin by Carlo Cignani (1628-1719) from 1709 and the Assumption of the Virgin by Carlo Maratta (1625-1713) from 1707. The works were gifts from Pope Clemens XI (1700-1721), who had been born in Urbino in 1649 as Giovanni Francesco Albani. The paintings are flanked by statues, over two metres high, of Zechariah and Joseph (left), and of Jesse (father of King David) and Abraham (right). The statues were made in 1660-1669 by Alessio Pellegrini. This sculptor was also responsible for the stucco decorations of the ceiling, while the paintings there with scenes from the life of the Virgin and the sybils (pre-Christian prophetesses) were made by less famous painters.
The martyrdom of Saint Sebastian – Federico Barocci.
More works by Federico Barocci can be found in the chapels on the right side. Unfortunately, I cannot recall having seen his Saint Cecilia among other saints there. The painting is an early work, clearly inspired by a similar work by Raphael which can now be admired in the Pinacoteca Nazionale in Bologna. It is possible that Barocci’s Saint Cecilia has been moved to the Museo Diocesano Albani, the museum next to the cathedral. Certainly still present is Barocci’s Martyrdom of Saint Sebastian from 1557-1558. It was commissioned by the local Bonaventura family and horribly vandalised in 1982 (it suffered una terribile mutilazione according to the information panel). On 16 March of that year, the perpetrators cut out the portrait of the little boy near the bottom of the painting – perhaps the son of the man who had commissioned it – and took it with them. It was not until 2007 that the fragment was recovered at an antiques market, confiscated and given back. The return of the fragment was followed by a thorough restoration in 2018-2019. The restored painting can now once again be admired in full glory, while the lesions are hardly visible anymore.
Sources: Bradt travel guide Umbria & the Marche (2021), p. 270, information panels in the cathedral and Duomo di Urbino – Wikipedia.
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