Chiesa di San Giovenale

At the quiet edge of Orvieto's medieval quarter, where the cliff drops to the valley, stands San Giovenale, one of the city's oldest churches. Dated to 1004, the Romanesque building rises over an Etruscan temple and an earlier early-Christian structure; its walls preserve fresco cycles from the Middle Ages.

Why it matters

San Giovenale is among the oldest churches of Orvieto. The site preserves successive phases of worship: an Etruscan temple, an earlier early-Christian building and the medieval church. The church closes a small square of medieval houses, and a green terrace beside it opens onto the Paglia valley.

What to notice

The interior has three naves on two levels linked by a central stair, with tuff columns bearing painted decoration. Fresco cycles from the late thirteenth and fourteenth centuries preserve elements of medieval Orvietan painting. The square apse and fourteenth-century side portal with a bas-relief of the saint frame the Romanesque building. A massive bell tower stands beside the gabled facade. Inside are a marble altar and a Madonna del Soccorso that came to light in the twentieth century.

Context and history

The church is dedicated to San Giovenale, remembered as the first bishop of Narni; a stone portrait of the saint sits above the side portal. In 1640, after plague victims had been sheltered in the building, its interior walls were limewashed. That coating concealed the frescoes for centuries, until restoration work brought parts of the medieval cycles back to view. The church stands at the edge of the medieval quarter, where the historic walls meet the cliff above the valley.