Description
The Basilica of San Domenico is the great Gothic brick church of the Dominicans, on the Camporegio hill, and it holds the head of Saint Catherine of Siena.
Austere outside, rich in frescoes inside, it faces the cathedral and the old town, from which the Torre del Mangia can be seen from above: for this reason many call it the Catherinian basilica.
The Dominicans arrived in Siena in 1220. The church was raised from 1226 and enlarged in the fourteenth century, but was only finished in 1465.
With its single wide nave covered by exposed trusses, it is made to welcome crowds of the faithful for preaching. It has survived fires, military occupations and the earthquake of 1798, which lowered the bell tower.
The facade is plain, with a single oculus high up, and is partly hidden by the Cappella delle Volte, which juts out in front.
There was no room for a door, and so you enter from the left side. The chapel was the place of prayer of the Mantellate, the Dominican tertiaries: here Catherine received the habit and was seen several times in ecstasy.
On the back wall a fresco by Andrea Vanni, a disciple of the saint, shows her with a devotee. It is believed to be a faithful portrait, because the author knew her in person.
Along the right wall opens the Chapel of Saint Catherine, commissioned in 1466 by Niccolò Bensi to keep the head relic. The frescoes by Sodoma, from 1526, show the Ecstasy and the Swoon of the saint, among his best works. The inlaid floor, from the fifteenth century, probably depicts Orpheus and the animals.
Other works to look for: the Adoration of the Child by Francesco di Giorgio, from around 1490, the Maestà by Guido da Siena in the left transept and a detached fresco by Pietro Lorenzetti, from around 1325. From the main chapel, through a doorway at the back, you get a fine view of the old town.
Saint Catherine died in Rome in 1380. The day after her death her confessor, Raymond of Capua, separated her head from her body. The Sienese clamored for a relic of their saint, and in 1384 they got it.
Don't miss
• The Chapel of Saint Catherine.
• The Cappella delle Volte.
• Guido da Siena's Maestà.
Did you know?
• A fresco by Sodoma tells the story of Niccolò di Tuldo, a man condemned to death whom Catherine converted and accompanied to the scaffold.
• The signature of the Maestà bears the date 1221, but most scholars place it around 1270.
Austere outside, rich in frescoes inside, it faces the cathedral and the old town, from which the Torre del Mangia can be seen from above: for this reason many call it the Catherinian basilica.
The Dominicans arrived in Siena in 1220. The church was raised from 1226 and enlarged in the fourteenth century, but was only finished in 1465.
With its single wide nave covered by exposed trusses, it is made to welcome crowds of the faithful for preaching. It has survived fires, military occupations and the earthquake of 1798, which lowered the bell tower.
The facade is plain, with a single oculus high up, and is partly hidden by the Cappella delle Volte, which juts out in front.
There was no room for a door, and so you enter from the left side. The chapel was the place of prayer of the Mantellate, the Dominican tertiaries: here Catherine received the habit and was seen several times in ecstasy.
On the back wall a fresco by Andrea Vanni, a disciple of the saint, shows her with a devotee. It is believed to be a faithful portrait, because the author knew her in person.
Along the right wall opens the Chapel of Saint Catherine, commissioned in 1466 by Niccolò Bensi to keep the head relic. The frescoes by Sodoma, from 1526, show the Ecstasy and the Swoon of the saint, among his best works. The inlaid floor, from the fifteenth century, probably depicts Orpheus and the animals.
Other works to look for: the Adoration of the Child by Francesco di Giorgio, from around 1490, the Maestà by Guido da Siena in the left transept and a detached fresco by Pietro Lorenzetti, from around 1325. From the main chapel, through a doorway at the back, you get a fine view of the old town.
Saint Catherine died in Rome in 1380. The day after her death her confessor, Raymond of Capua, separated her head from her body. The Sienese clamored for a relic of their saint, and in 1384 they got it.
Don't miss
• The Chapel of Saint Catherine.
• The Cappella delle Volte.
• Guido da Siena's Maestà.
Did you know?
• A fresco by Sodoma tells the story of Niccolò di Tuldo, a man condemned to death whom Catherine converted and accompanied to the scaffold.
• The signature of the Maestà bears the date 1221, but most scholars place it around 1270.