The octagonal church of Santa Maria di Montedoro in Montefiascone has the classic renaissance form.
It was designed by the great Florentine architect Antonio da Sangallo the Younger who had thought of it as an appendix to a larger convent.
The building is located outside the town along the road that leads to Bolsena exactly where once there was a sacred shrine to which people in search of grace were drawn.
The original painting, a fresco representing the Madonna with the Child in her arms, is still located just behind the main altar.
The work is attributed to the painter Antonio del Massaro, known as Pastura, originally from Viterbo.
However, its construction underwent several interruptions, first for the plague of 1523, and then for the passage of the troops of Emperor Charles V who sacked the city in 1527.
However, the church was finished in 1548 according to the drawings of Sangallo that today are found in the Florence Uffizi Museum.
Inside, the church has a Renaissance style with decorations in local dark stone that mark the rythm given by the octagonal plan.
The 5 side chapels are all frescoed and there is a splendid crucifixion with Mary, Mary Magdalene and St. John the Evangelist at the foot of the cross.
The church ends with a superb dome also with an octagonal base.
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