Chiesa di San Domenico

San Domenico in Città di Castello is a large Gothic church with a broad nave and surviving fifteenth-century frescoes. Its artistic history includes commissions for Raphael and Luca Signorelli, whose original altarpieces later left the building.

Why it matters

The Dominican church connects mendicant religious life with important Renaissance patronage. It is also a focus of devotion to Saint Margherita of Città di Castello, whose remains are preserved here.

What to notice

An unfinished facade encloses a spacious interior under timber trusses. Medieval frescoes survive on the walls, alongside a carved wooden choir. Copies recall Raphael's Crucifixion for the Gavari chapel, now in London's National Gallery, and Signorelli's Martyrdom of Saint Sebastian, now in the city's Pinacoteca. These works connect the church with collections elsewhere without replacing its surviving medieval decoration.

Context and history

The Dominicans settled in the city in the later thirteenth century. The present church was completed in 1424 and consecrated in 1426. Restoration between 1911 and 1920 removed later altars and recovered frescoes. Margherita's canonisation in 2021 added a recent chapter to the church's devotional history.