The Church of Santa Maria di Montedoro (anciently called Monte Moro) is a religious building in

Montefiascone Montefiascone is a town and ''comune'' of the province of Viterbo, in Lazio, central Italy. It stands on a hill on the southeast side of Lake Bolsena, about north of Rome. History The name of the city derives from that of the Falisci (''Mons Fa ...

, central

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

, located at the foot of a hill, three kilometres from the city, on the Strada Verentana.

History

Its plan was started by

Antonio da Sangallo the Younger Antonio da Sangallo the Younger (12 April 14843 August 1546), also known as Antonio Cordiani, was an Italian architect active during the Renaissance, mainly in Rome and the Papal States. One of his most popular projects that he worked on des ...

while he was busy in the restoration of the Palazzo Papale in Montefiascone, commissioned by

Pope Leo X Pope Leo X (; born Giovanni di Lorenzo de' Medici, 11 December 14751 December 1521) was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 9 March 1513 to his death in December 1521. Born into the prominent political and banking Med ...

. The project of this church saw initially economical impediments because of a severe plague in 1523, and was later completed by architect Pietro Tartarino.

Description

It is an octagonal temple, joined to a semi-circular choir, 21 meters long. In the six corners of the octagon there are rectangular semicolumns with Doric capitals, above which is a beam of mouldings. In the middle of each side there are windows, some of which are closed. Above the windows is the

tholobate A tholobate (), also called a drum or tambour, is the upright part of a building on which a dome is raised. It is generally in the shape of a cylinder or a polygonal prism. The name derives from the tholos, the Greek term for a round building ...

; above it tholobate rises a rough wall that hides the small dome erected on the same tholobate. The church can be accessed through two doors: the interior houses there are five chapels and the large semicircular chapel of the altar. The chapels have frescoes depicting the ''

Crucifixion Crucifixion is a method of capital punishment in which the condemned is tied or nailed to a large wooden cross, beam or stake and left to hang until eventual death. It was used as a punishment by the Achaemenid Empire, Persians, Ancient Carthag ...

Jesus Jesus (AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ, Jesus of Nazareth, and many Names and titles of Jesus in the New Testament, other names and titles, was a 1st-century Jewish preacher and religious leader. He is the Jesus in Chris ...

'', the ''

Resurrection Resurrection or anastasis is the concept of coming back to life after death. Reincarnation is a similar process hypothesized by other religions involving the same person or deity returning to another body. The disappearance of a body is anothe ...

''and the '' Madonna with Child''. {{coord missing, Italy Maria di Montedoro Octagonal churches in Italy Renaissance architecture in Lazio 16th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in Italy