Bertinoro Cathedral ( it, Duomo di Bertinoro; Concattedrale di Santa Caterina) is a Roman Catholic

cathedral A cathedral is a church that contains the '' cathedra'' () of a bishop, thus serving as the central church of a diocese, conference, or episcopate. Churches with the function of "cathedral" are usually specific to those Christian denomination ...

Bertinoro Bertinoro () is a town and ''comune'' in the province of Forlì-Cesena, Emilia-Romagna (Italy). It is located on hill Mount Cesubeo, in Romagna, a few kilometers from the Via Emilia. History There are remains of a settlement dating from the Iron ...

in the

province of Forlì-Cesena The province of Forlì-Cesena ( it, provincia di Forlì-Cesena) is a Provinces of Italy, province in the Emilia–Romagna region of Italy. Its capital is the city of Forlì. The province has a population of 394,273 as of 2016 over an area of . ...

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

. It is dedicated to

Saint Catherine of Alexandria Catherine of Alexandria (also spelled Katherine); grc-gre, ἡ Ἁγία Αἰκατερίνη ἡ Μεγαλομάρτυς ; ar, سانت كاترين; la, Catharina Alexandrina). is, according to tradition, a Christian saint and virgin, wh ...

. Formerly the seat of the bishops of Bertinoro, it is now a co-cathedral in the

diocese of Forlì-Bertinoro In church governance, a diocese or bishopric is the ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop. History In the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided provinces were administratively associat ...

History

The first religious building dedicated to Saint Catherine on the site was a small oratory, demolished at the end of the 16th century and rebuilt as the present cathedral in

Bramante Donato Bramante ( , , ; 1444 – 11 April 1514), born as Donato di Pascuccio d'Antonio and also known as Bramante Lazzari, was an Italian architect and painter. He introduced Renaissance architecture to Milan and the High Renaissance style ...

sque style by order of Bishop Giovanni Andrea Caligari; work finished in the 17th century. In its final position it backed onto the Palazzo Comunale, because it was believed that the latter was about to be demolished because of its instability, which however did not happen.

Description

The nave is subdivided into three aisles. The cathedral contains several works of art, including: a painting of ''The Virgin between Saints Peter and Paul'', by Francesco Longhi; ''The mystical nights of St. Catherine of Alexandria'', an 18th-century painting of the

Bolognese School The Bolognese School of painting, also known as the ''School of Bologna'', flourished between the 16th and 17th centuries in Bologna, which rivalled Florence and Rome as the center of painting in Italy. Its most important representatives i ...

, on the high altar; and a carved wooden crucifix of the Italian-German school on the north altar, part of which appears to date from the 16th century. There is a legend that the maker of this work was a pilgrim who, after three days of retreat in a monastery, on his departure discovered the crucifix growing from a fig tree in the garden of the building. Under the cathedral is a

crypt A crypt (from Latin ''crypta'' "vault") is a stone chamber beneath the floor of a church or other building. It typically contains coffins, sarcophagi, or religious relics. Originally, crypts were typically found below the main apse of a chur ...

with external access.

Gallery

File:Duomo Bertinoro 3.JPG, Exterior view File:Interno cattedrale Bertinoro.JPG, Interior

Notes and references

{{coord, 44.1489, N, 12.1326, E, source:wikidata, display=title Roman Catholic cathedrals in Italy Churches in the province of Forlì-Cesena Cathedrals in Emilia-Romagna Bertinoro