Orvieto the Duomo. On November 15, 1290, Pope Nicholas IV laid the cornerstone for
the present building and dedicated it to the Assumption of the Virgin, a feast for
which the city had a long history of special devotion. The design has often been
attributed to Arnolfo di Cambio, but the prevailing modern opinion is that its
master mason was an obscure monk named Fra' Bevignate from Perugia.

The church is striped in white travertine and greenish-black basalt in narrow bands,
similar in many ways to the cathedral of Siena and other central Italian cathedrals
of that era. In the following decade, cathedral authorities called Sienese architect
and sculptor Lorenzo Maitani to stabilize the building and design a façade.
He enlarged the choir and planned a transept with two chapels (c.1308-1330),
spaces that were not finished until long after his death. The façade (illustration,
right) is particularly striking and includes some remarkable sculpture by
Lorenzo Maitani (14th century). Inside the cathedral, the Chapel of San Brizio
is frescoed by Fra Angelico and with Luca Signorelli's masterpiece,
his Last Judgment (1449-51). On the left side of this chapel are the tombs of
the Gualterio family.