Papal Palaces â€“ The Rooms

The Papal Palaces, an extraordinary complex of medieval buildings on the south side of the Cathedral, were originally built as lodgings for popes Urban IV Pantaléon (1261-1264), Gregory X Visconti (1271-1276) and Martin IV de Brie (1281-1283). They connect with the cathedral at the back and today house the permanent collections of the Museum of the Opera del Duomo.

Ground Floor

Fresco Gallery

Frescoes (14th-15th century)

First Floor

Room of the Maestà and "Stanze delle Meraviglie" (Rooms of Marvels or Wunderkammer)

The fourteenth-century sculptural group in marble and bronze of the Madonna Enthroned and Child with Curtain-holding Angels was formerly in the lunette of the central portal of the cathedral. It was removed in 1983 for restoration and was replaced there by a copy in June 2009.

Room 1

Paintings and sculpture (13th-14th century). Of particular note: Madonna Enthroned and Child, attributed to the Florentine painter Coppo di Marcovaldo (ca. 1270), Censing Angels by Arnolfo di Cambio (ca. 1282)

Room 2

Paintings, sculpture, wooden furnishings, mosaics, liturgical vestments and objects (14th-17th century): in particular two polyptychs by Simone Martini and Luca Signorelli's Mary Magdalene (1504).

Room 3

Paintings and mosaics (16th-17th century) and the large paintings by such leading protagonists of the art of the Counter-Reformation as Nicolò Circignano known as Pomarancio, Girolamo Muziano and Cesare Nebbia.

Room of the Sinopias

Preparatory drawings (underpaintings) for the frescoes in the Chapel of the Corporal, paintings, sculpture, gold and silver and wooden liturgical objects (13th-20th century).

Albèri Library

The library, set between the cathedral and the Papal Palaces, was built in 1499 for the archdeacon Antonio Albèri (ca. 1423 – 1505), who in his will (1482) bequeathed his collection of over 300 volumes, including manuscripts and precious incunabula, to the Cathedral. Under the direction of the BSAE Soprintendenza of Umbria the premises including their interesting pictorial decoration have been restored to their original condition and are now what is probably the only example – with the exception of the Piccolomini Library in Siena – of a library annexed to a cathedral.