Duomo (San Feliciano)

(begun in 1133)


According to tradition, St Felician was buried on this site in 251: he had died just outside Fulginiae as he was being taken as a prisoner from  to Rome, the intended site of his martyrdom.  A 10th century document that is preserved at Sassovivo records that the Atti family subsequently built the Castrum Sancti Feliciani here, and that the relics of St Felician, which were subsequently preserved in the castrum, became the object of local pilgrimage.  Bishop Dietrich of Metz stole these relics in 970, but the ancient church survives as the crypt of the present Duomo.

The castrum became the episcopal seat in the 11th century, and the newly important settlement became known as  "Civitas Sancti Feliciani".  Work soon began on a grander Duomo.  The long inscription across the main façade of the present church records that Marco, whom Pope Callistus II had created bishop, began the renewal of  the church in 1133.  Cardinal Giulio di San Marcello consecrated it in 1149. 

It seems that the rebuilt church provided a model for the later church of San Michele, Bevagna, which has retained its original appearance.  Two arcades of six columns separated the nave from the flanking aisles, and a raised semi-circular presbytery was built over the crypt.

The Duomo soon became too small for the expanding city, and it was extended along what is now the left transept.  Two inscriptions on the minor facade provide the details: Anselmo degli Atti, Bishop of Foligno and Nocera commissioned the extension in 1201.  The Duomo now had a second imposing facade, which looked across the central piazza to the new palaces of the civic authorities.

A metal cross (1438) that was salvaged from the campanile after the earthquake of 1832 (see below) is dated by inscription and bears the Trinci arms.  The same date and the Trinci arms also appear on the main bell in the campanile: it was the date at which Rinaldo Trini was elected as Bishop of Foligno (although Pope Eugenius IV refused to recognise this election).   The cross was re-erected on the rebuilt campanile in 1847 (see below).  It was removed after the earthquake of 1997 and is now displayed in the room behind the rose window of the minor facade, which forms part of the Museo Capitolare e Diocesano.

The Duomo has been re-modeled on a number of occasions. 

  • The apse was rebuilt in 1457-62 and its floor was lowered to the level of the nave, at the expense of the crypt below. 

  • Further re-modeling in 1513 opened up what is now the right transept, so that the building took on its current Latin cross configuration.

  • The cupola was added in 1543-8, perhaps at the behest of the papal legate, Cardinal Tiberio Crispo.

  • The duomo was badly damaged in the earthquake of 1703. 

  • The interior took on its present neo-classical appearance after a long programme of restoration in the period 1703 - 1819.

  • Although the lower part of the campanile is original, the upper part was rebuilt in 1847.

  • Both facades were "restored" to something like the originals in 1903-4.


For more detail, see the pages on: