Nothing can prepare you for the visual feast that is Orvieto's soul-stirring Gothic cathedral. Dating from 1290, it sports a black-and-white banded exterior fronted by what is perhaps the most astonishing facade to grace any Italian church: a mesmerising display of rainbow frescoes, jewel-like mosaics, bas-reliefs and delicate braids of flowers and vines. Head inside and the show continues, most spectacularly in the form of Luca Signorelli's mesmerising Giudizio Universale (Last Judgment) fresco in the Cappella di San Brizio.
The building took 30 years to plan and three centuries to complete. It was started by Fra Bevignate and later additions were made by Sienese master Lorenzo Maitani, Andrea Pisano (of Florence Cathedral fame) and his son Nino, Andrea Orcagna and Michele Sanmicheli.
Of the art on show inside, it's Luca Signorelli's Giudizio Universale that's the star turn. The artist began work on this vast fresco in 1499 and over the course of the next four years covered every inch of the Cappella di San Brizio with a swirling, and at times grotesque, depiction of the Last Judgment. Michelangelo is said to have taken inspiration from it. Indeed, to some, Michelangelo's masterpiece runs a close second to Signorelli's creation.
On the other side of the transept, the Cappella del Corporale houses a 13th-century altar cloth stained with blood that is believed to have miraculously poured from the communion bread of a priest who doubted the transubstantiation.
