Santuario Casa di Santa Caterina

The Sanctuary of the House of St Catherine grew around the Benincasa family home in Siena’s Fontebranda quarter. The rooms associated with Catherine’s early life now form a devotional complex of oratories, where domestic traces and later artworks preserve the memory of the Sienese saint.

Why it matters

After Catherine’s canonization, Siena’s Commune bought the house in 1466 so it could remain open for public veneration. The sanctuary’s rooms connect the family home with the later growth of her cult, from the kitchen oratory to the church built to house the crucifix associated with her stigmata.

What to notice

In the Oratorio della Cucina, a grille reveals the remains of the Benincasa family hearth. The room also holds Bernardino Fungai’s 1496 altarpiece. The Oratorio della Camera preserves the stone on which Catherine is said to have rested her head and several associated relics. The Church of the Crucifix, built between 1614 and 1623, houses the late-thirteenth-century wooden crucifix associated with the stigmata Catherine received at Pisa in 1375.

Context and history

The sanctuary expanded over the centuries around the original house. Its Portico dei Comuni, built between 1941 and 1947 with support from Italian municipalities, carries busts of popes associated with Catherine’s history. The church’s decoration includes works by Sebastiano Conca, Rutilio and Domenico Manetti, and Giuseppe Nicola Nasini; Nasini’s cupola frescoes were completed between 1701 and 1703. A chapel dedicated to confession was added in 2006.