Cathedral of St Benedetto
This Cathedral overlooking the main square of Gualdo Tadino visually closes it with its facade on the eastern side.
The facade in late Romanesque-Gothic style is divided in two by a string-course. Below there are three doors. Above the string-course, a large rose window flanked by two smaller niches, one of finest in the entire area. The rose window consists of a double row of twisted columns and trefoil arches converging on a central node decorated with plant motifs. On the side, next to the apse, you can see the bell tower, later built in Romanesque Revival style. On the right side, a sixteenth century fountain leans upon the building. The interior of the church, rebuilt in the nineteenth century, features a three-nave plan with lodges opening on the minor naves. The ceiling consists of vaults interspersed with arches and ends in a large semi-circular apse, above the nineteenth century crypt. In the apse is the main altar dating back to the late fifteenth century, rebuilt in 1965, showing some bass-reliefs by Guglielmo Ciani depicting the stories of St. Benedict.
The Cathedral walls are decorated with a cycle of paintings made by Ulisse Ribustini between 1907 and 1924. As we see it today, this church was built around the mid-fourteenth century, while before it was located outside the walls of Gualdo Tadino, in an area called “Old St. Benedict’s Place”. It used to be a major Benedictine abbey founded by the Earl Offredo in 1006 on the ruins of an ancient monastery. The Earl entered into monkhood and the abbey grew to become one of the most prominent in the area. Being located outside the walls, the abbey though was constantly under attack; that is why in 1215 monks asked Pope Innocent III to be moved to a safer place. Thus, as evident from the stone on the left side of the church, the abbey was rebuilt inside Gualdo Tadino in 1256. Basically, it was rebuilt in late Romanesque-Gothic style with the support of workers from Lombardy, as it appears today.
Later on, it underwent further restructuring, especially in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries: the bell tower in Romanesque Revival style was added in 1875 and church interior was renovated in the same year, following a project by Virginio Vespignani. In 1915, the St. Benedict’s Church was elevated to Cathedral by Pope Benedict XV and, as you can see now, it has been recently restored.