We set out at about 5:00 am and headed roughly in the direction of the Duomo, or Cathedral. It was not at all cold, and I was comfortable in a T-shirt until after dawn when it got quite chilly.
The Duomo has an impressive facade, and though it was not open in the early hours, the detail on the facade was enough reward.
The facade is extremely ornate with lots of narrative sculpture over the whole of the area. There are three huge bronze double doors across the front, with very large figures in bronze relief. The frontage is composed of numerous bas-reliefs, bronze statues huge religious images that must be mosaic and columns embellished with glittering patterns of golden mosaics. We took some photographs which will find their way to the photo pages of Orvieto in due course.
From there we wandered back into the village centre, looking for a bread shop and some coffee. Nobody much was out of bed yet, so we passed the time with a visit to another church, Chiesa di Sant'Andrea, which was open and there was a sort of prayer meeting going on between a priest and two parishioners. After they finished, we had the church to ourselves to wander through and admire, but we were particularly struck by the frescoes on the walls. While there was not much of them left (I think the church dates from 13th century, and frescoes had deteriorated, and in some cases had been attacked with hammer and chisel) I was interested enough to research the fresco pictured here. The picture shows Saint Julian the Hospitaler, and while you may find it difficult to see exactly what is happening I'm sure that you can see a woman in a red cloak, a person (faceless) shouldering a bloody sword, and two people in bed behind him. I'll tell the story.
The central figure is Saint Julian, the standing woman his good wife, and the two in bed (both with their throats cut) are Julian's parents.
When Julian was born a witch prophesied that Julian would kill his parents. Overburdened with worry, Julian ran away at ten years and made his way in the world, quite successfully. Twenty years later, his parents decided to go find him, and when they arrived where Julian lived they met his wife, who kindly offered to let them sleep in her marital bed. Julian was out hunting and was ignorant of his parents arrival. An enemy, (unidentified as far as I can tell), sent word to Julian that his good wife was having it off with some fellow while Julian was hunting. Julian rushed home, and in the darkness murdered the two in bed, and then found his wife in the market or somewhere. She promptly forgave him and Julian went on with his career of good works.
There is one thing that remains a mystery, and that is, who hacked Julian's face away. Certainly some bad feeling there, or maybe it is just some coincidental decay.
Another yarn on another day.
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