San Domenico (12th century)
This church, which was perhaps the first Duomo of Narni, is reputed to have been built on the site of a Roman temple of Minerva. Pope Eugenius III consecrated it to Santa Maria Maggiore in 1148. It was re-dedicated to San Domenico in 1303 when it passed to the Dominicans, who had settled outside the city in 1253.
The convent was damaged in 1527 when Imperial soldiers sacked Narni. Cardinal Giuseppe Sacripanti remodelled the interior of the church in 1715, and it was reconsecrated in 1728. The church and convent were put to secular use in the Naploeonic period, and suffered further indignities when they passed to the Commune in 1867. A number of works of art that were removed thereafter are now the Pinacoteca. The complex was restored in the 20th century as an auditorium and a home for the public library and archives, but it is no longer in use.
In 1979, a room was re-discovered under the apse that was used by the Inquisition in the 17th and 18th centuries - see the page on the adjacent subterranean church of Sant' Angelo.
 Image copyright © William P. Thayer |
The façade was rebuilt in the 13th century, to the right of the enormous campanile. There are sculptures of human and animal heads under the cornice above the main portal (12th century). This portal, which came from the original facade, has reliefs of the Apostlesin tondi. The relief between the lowest two tondi on the right shows a figure in a chariot that is drawn by griffins. These mythical animals drew the chariots of Apollo and of Nemesis, as well as that of Alexander the Great as he tried to ascend into Heaven.
The interior of the church has a nave and two aisles. Some of the original Cosmati pavement survives in the right aisle. The apse and two apsidal chapels were added in 1303 when the church passed to the Dominicans, and the side chapels were added in the 15th and 16th centuries. The 4th chapel on the right belonged to the Gattamelata family.
Surviving Sculpture
There are interesting works of sculpture on the inside surfaces of the pilasters at the end of the nave:
Tabernacle (15th century)
This marble tabernacle by a follower of Agostino di Duccio is on right. Monument of Gabriele Massei (1494)
This monument is on the left.
The inscription says that the
deceased was snatched away in the flower of his youth.
Surviving Frescoes
Crucifixion with the Virgin and St John the Evangelist (14th century)
This fresco, which is attributed to the Maestro della Dormitio di Terni, is on the 2nd pillar on the right.
These frescoes, which are attributed to the Maestro di Narni del 1409, depict St George and the dragon (on the left) and St Hugo enthroned (on the right).
Madonna and Child with St Dominic (15th century)
This fresco by a follower of Pier Matteo d’ Amelia
is in the apsidal chapel at the end of the left aisle. There is part
of a figure of another Dominican saint (perhaps St Thomas Aquinas) on
the right.
The Virgin and St Lucy (15th century)
These frescoes, which are all that survives of a larger work by a follower of Bartolomeo di Tommaso, are on the wall beyond the 2nd chapel on the right.
These damaged frescoes have been recently attributed to Giovanni Francesco Perini. The fresco on the right wall depicts the Resurrection, with SS Augustine and Ambrose above. Most of the fresco on the left wall, which depicted the Last Supper with SS Jerome and Gregory the Great above, has been detached and part of it is exhibited in the Pinacoteca. Only the figure of St Gregory survives in situ.
Stories from Genesis (16th century)
These damaged frescoes by Johann Marten Stellaert and Gillis Congnet are in the vault of the Cappella del Rosario (the large chapel on the left).
Return to the walk.