The first attested report of the building dates to 956, when in the area there were already the bishop’s palace and a first cathedral, named St. Mary of the Bishopric, built between the 8th and the 9th centuries. A bishop’s decree of 1067 also testifies to the presence of another building included in the cathedral’s complex, the so-called “tribune of St. Primianus” (9th century). The construction of the present duomo started after Spoleto was devastated by Fredrick Redbeard in 1155, and was completed by the turn of the 13th century, when popes Innocent III and Honorius III solemnly consecrated the new building in 1198 and 1216, respectively.
In the following centuries the church would undergo progressive alterations: in the 13th century the façade was enlarged and a wide cycle of frescoes was painted between 1374 and 1384, now almost disappeared; between 1467 and 1469 Filippo Lippi frescoed the apse, and a number of chapels were created; the late 15th/early 16th century saw the addition of the Renaissance portico and in 1638 started the integral renovation of the inside.
The bell-tower and the façade maintain their very beautiful, Romanesque aspect; the latter is embellished by eight rose-windows, by the portico built by Ambrogio Barocci from Milan between 1491 and 1504, and by the mosaic, signed and dated by some “Dr Solsternus” in 1207. Accessing the portico, you can admire the very beautiful Romanesque major portal, finely carved with vegetable and animal motifs. The inside of the church is entirely different, being the result of the 17th-century renovation, supported by the Barberinis and performed by architects Luigi Arrigucci and Domenico Castelli between 1638 and 1644.
The very beautiful floor of the nave is the original, Cosmatesque one and features stone, porphyry and serpentinite tiles; the floor of the aisles features white and red rhombuses instead and dates to 1481. A further inside renewal between 1785 and 1792 was conducted by Roman architect Giuseppe Valadier and involved the remake of the major altar and of the side ones. The Spoleto cathedral keeps a series of valuable works of art, including frescoes by Pintoricchio in the Erolis’ Chapel (1497), the oil on canvas by Annibale Carracci and others, portraying Madonna with Child and the saints Francis and Dorothea (1599), and the Holy Icon, a precious Byzantine work dating to the 11th/12th century given in 1185 by emperor Fredrick Redbeard to the city in sign of peace.
The apse is entirely occupied by the very beautiful frescoes (1467/69) portraying Stories of the Virgin by Filippo Lippi, whose deadly remains are in the sepulchral monument in the right transept.
The Relics Chapel keeps a handwritten letter by St. Francis, while the last chapel on the right features Alberto Sotio’s Cross, signed and dated (1187), one of the best samples of Romanesque painted crosses in Italy.

L’Umbria, Manuali per il Territorio, Spoleto, Roma 1978; AA.VV. La Cattedrale di Spoleto, Spoleto 2002; B. Toscano, il Duomo di Spoleto, Spoleto 1969