Terni Cathedral

The present cathedral is the result of a long series of rebuildings and repairs over the centuries.

Tradition states further that Saint Anastasius, bishop of Terni from 606 to 653, built another cathedral on the site in the 7th century.

Little now remains of this Romanesque cathedral, because of modernisation works in the taste of the day which were carried out in the 16th and 17th centuries, which included the raising of the height of the central nave, the refacing of the tribune and the campanile, the construction of a baptistry and of the side chapels, and above all the integration of the church and the piazza on which it stands according to Baroque designs by Gian Lorenzo Bernini in the 17th century.

As regards the side tower, its position was much discussed in 1500; the conclusion reached was to place it to the left of the apse, where it was rebuilt in 1743.

The interior, on a Latin cross groundplan, has a central nave between two side aisles, divided by piers, with side chapels (including those of the baptistry and of the Blessed Sacrament), a transept and an apse.