Orvieto, Cathedral, City View

(3 photos)
Orvieto is located on top of a 600 foot pedestal of volcanic rock, an almost impregnable plateau, so we drove up the steep almost precipitous street, to the center of town. One reference mentions a funicular (that we didn’t see) for this short trip.

The famous gray and white basalt and travertine Cathedral, with an exposed timber roof, dominates the surrounding countryside. Some museum buildings house beautiful works of art, Orvieto’s Cathedral building itself is a beautiful work of art. Orvieto’s horizontal stripes, both inside and out, are so very different from what is seen in most Cathedrals in the world. Usually a buttress is just a buttress, but at Orvieto the powerful buttresses dominate the vertical structure, and seem to enclose and border the horizontal stripes.
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No Cathedral — make that no building — that we have seen displays such detail of art and structure.
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As is true so many times, as we were driving away there was a striking view of Orvieto planted on its rock, dominated by its towers and the Cathedral. The vista was superior to what we had seen when we were in town. The Michelin Guide mentions the striking view of Orvieto from a hairpin bend on the road to Montefiascone — and they weren’t kidding.