Orvieto Hotel Kristall

The Cathedral

Built in 1263, after the Miracle of the Blood, in which blood gushed from the host while a Bohemian priest was celebrating the Mass in the Saint Cristina Basilica in Bolsena.
Pope Urbano IV was informed of the Miracle and he rushed from Orvieto, accompanied by a great suite, to see the blood on the corporal and on the stones, which are still today preserved in Saint Cristina Basilica in Bolsena.
The Holy Corporal Chapel was built in order to keep the relic of the miracle of Bolsena around 1350.
The Cathedral of Orvieto was erected for over a century, the walls of the Holy Corporal Chapel and of the gallery decorated with frescoes by noted artists, when on the 14 June 1447 Beato Angelico was commissioned to illustrate the bare Chapel known as New or of Saint Brizio with frescoes.
Luca Signorelli completed the task in the New Chapel with the traditional frescoes that marks the decorative style of the 1400s. Signorelli’s work lasted five years, from 1499 to 1504, crossing two centuries and two aesthetic traditions. Today the New Chapel is once again open to visitors after restoration works that concerned the architectural structures and the frescos. In this way the Chapel appears in a regenerated scenery.