ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, February 23, 1997 TAG: 9702210003
SECTION: TRAVEL PAGE: 8 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: ORVIETO, ITALY
SOURCE: CHRISTOPHER REYNOLDS LOS ANGELES TIMES
It would be asking for trouble to come right out and call Orvieto's cathedral the most beautiful church in Europe. But just look at it.
Sitting as it does in a town of 24,000, in central Italy midway between Rome and Florence, Orvieto's cathedral, or Duomo, hasn't got the global profile of St. Peter's in Rome, the Duomo in Florence or St. Mark's in Venice. If the Catholic church ran a marketing survey of North American visitors to Italy, the grandly Gothic Orvieto church might even run behind the cathedrals of Siena and Milan. And if the subject is the Continent's most beautiful churches, there will always be arguments for Chartres or Notre Dame in France, or maybe even Antonio Gaudi's Sagrada Familia in Barcelona, if you're in the company of modernists.
But if you arrive in Orvieto in early afternoon on a blue-skied day, make your way on foot up the Via Nebbia, then turn the old stone corner with all the tourist signs and cast your gaze skyward, there's a good chance you'll forget about other churches for a while. There stands the Duomo, in considerable glory.
The first time I came face to face with the cathedral of Orvieto, I was startled and humbled, but not quite overcome. It was shortly before noon, and the facade was in the shade. But by the time I had wandered back to the Piazza del Duomo about an hour later, the sun was in optimum position, and the front of the church was ablaze. It didn't seem real.
Art historian Jacob Burckhardt called the Duomo ``the greatest and richest polychrome monument in the world.'' Pope Leo XIII suggested that on Judgment Day, the Duomo's beauty would carry it right up to Heaven. And soon, the place may make an even bigger impression on modern-day visitors. Some time this year, workers are due to complete restoration that has kept the church's spectacular Signorelli interior frescoes behind scaffolding for more than a year.
Orvieto sits on a tilted table top, its high end about 1,000 feet above the green valley. Approaching by train or car, visitors first pass through the modern, homely part of town known as Orvieto Scalo, at the base of the table. From there, a traveler can either drive up the hill to fight for a rare parking space, park and take a bus, or ride the funicular railway (less than $1 for an adult round trip) to Piazza Cahen, from which buses make the brief run to the Piazza del Duomo.
Uptown, Via Maitani and Via del Duomo lead past souvenir shops and restaurants to the piazza in front of the Duomo. The shops offer Orvieto's other popular products: white wine produced on neighboring estates; hand-detailed pottery, often distinguished by green coloring; lace; and ironwork. Beneath those streets and shops, the hilltop is riddled with ancient tunnels and tombs - a cause for worry over the town's physical stability and a reminder of the settlement's early history.
Orvieto, in the westernmost region of Umbria as it gives way
to Tuscany, was an Etruscan town from about the 7th century B.C. to the 3rd century B.C., when Romans forced out the Etruscans. In later centuries, Orvieto fell under control of the Vatican and became a frequent papal retreat. The church's cornerstone was laid in 1290 on the highest ground for miles around, at a site formerly occupied by another church and, before that, by an Etruscan temple.
The triptych-like facade of the church, about 150 feet high, is dominated by four pillars, each elaborately sculpted with scenes from the Bible. The doorways are enormous, surrounded by sculpted bas-relief details, with stained-glass windows and glistening mosaics above. Inside and out, the church's walls are horizontally striped, the stonework alternating between white travertine and gray basalt.
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By some accounts, the Duomo project began as a celebration of a reported miracle in the nearby town of Bolsena: A Bavarian priest, on a pilgrimage to grapple with his doubts about the doctrine of transubstantiation (the point in the Catholic Mass at which wine and wafers are said to be transformed into Christ's blood and body), saw Christ's blood materialize, in the shape of Christ's face, on a white linen altar cloth.
Some historians have also theorized, however, that 1290 was an opportune time for the Vatican to raise an intimidating structure to discourage the developing independence of towns in the area.
Either way, it was an immense project, and one that the church and town clung to even after the murderous arrival of the Black Death in 1348. The Duomo wasn't completed until 1580, and by that time, according to one historian's count, it had become the joint product of 33 architects, 152 sculptors, 68 painters and 90 mosaicists.
And the work didn't end in the 16th century. My favorite part of the building, the brilliant mosaic work on the upper facade, is actually a replacement, added in the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries to replace earlier mosaics apparently removed by agents of Rome. The bronze doors are even more recent, the product of work from 1964-1970.
The original architect is unknown, but great credit is usually heaped upon Lorenzo Maitani of Siena, who took over in 1310 and spent about 30 years guiding construction - including the detail work on the four pillars that dominate the church facade - as ongoing redesign transformed the plan from Romanesque to Gothic.
In the Duomo's chapel lies the church's greatest interior treasure and, unfortunately, one recently obscured from public view. There, restorers are working on a cycle of frescoes by Luca Signorelli that is widely considered to be one of the crowning artistic achievements of the Italian Renaissance. The cycle includes a Last Judgment that was painted from 1499-1504 and is said to have heavily influenced the execution of another judgment scene about 40 years later - Michelangelo's, in the Sistine Chapel. Other frescoes are the work of Fra Angelico and others, mostly from the 15th century.
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There is more to Orvieto than the church, of course. The Church of San Giovenale looks down onto orchards from its rock base. On the edge of town lie Etruscan tombs. I missed the market held in the Piazza del Popolo on Thursdays and Saturdays, but the narrow, stony streets around it are full of medieval character.
Near the Piazza Cahen, on the way up the hill into the highest and oldest quarter of town, lies the Pozzo di San Patricio, a 16th-century well that is about 200 feet deep and wide enough to accommodate two spiral staircases. Pressed for time, I decided I could live without seeing that or paying the fee of about $4.
Instead, I wandered around the pleasant (and free) public gardens on the site of an ancient fortress, still rimmed by ancient walls and surrounded by a commanding view of the checkerboard farmland below. It was near here that erosion and landslides threatened the hilltop town's stability in the late 1970s. Italian leaders in the last 15 years have waged a costly campaign to shore up the hilltop.
The town also has several museums, including the Museo Archeologico Nazionale, the Museo dell' Opera del Duomo and the Museo Claudio Faina - but many of their galleries have been closed for years for reorganization or upgrading, and those that are open are not the most arresting in Italy, or even in Umbria. It would be nice to spend a night in town and make time for lingering in such places, but the truth is, most travelers in Rome could make Orvieto a day trip without much guilt.
LENGTH: Long : 137 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: CHRISTOPHER REYNOLDS/Los Angeles Times. 1. Orvieto'sby CNBcathedral, partly shrouded for restoration, has been called ``the
greatest and richest polychrome monument in the world.'' 2. Orchards
and vineyards dot the Umbrian countryside below Orvieto, Italy. The
town of 24,000 lies midway between Rome and Florence. 3. A street in
old Orvieto frames the cathedral. Via Maitani and Via del Duomo lead
past souvenir shops and restaurants to the piazza in front of the
Duomo. color.