The church of San Domenico, in Fondi, is recorded together with the adjoining Dominican convent only from the mid-fourteenth century. In 1466 Count Onorato II Caetani had it entirely rebuilt and enlarged, and endowed the whole complex with revenues. In 1729 Pope Benedict XIII also passed through.
What to see
The church has two aisles, divided by a series of three pointed arches in stone blocks. On a stone set into the second pier a bull is carved in high relief; in the centre, on the wall carried by the arches, is the stone emblem of the Gaetani d'Aragona. To the right of the entrance is the tomb of Giulio Camponeschi, a citizen of Fondi.
The convent has a square cloister, with twenty-two piers and two columns carrying as many pointed arches, which support the terrace. Facing the portico is the chapter house, with its doorway and two two-light windows, one with Gothic tracery and the other lancet-shaped. In the orchard, until 1835, there could be seen an orange tree planted upside down, with its roots in the air: according to the legend, because it bore no fruit.
Visiting
Times and arrangements for access to the church and the cloister should be checked with the town of Fondi.
Our editors' tip
A tradition, now shown to be groundless, held that St Thomas Aquinas had lived and taught in the convent: visitors were shown the cell where he was said to have slept, the one where he was said to have taught and the chapel where his body was said to have rested. The recent restoration removed the walls put up in the fifteenth century to separate the three rooms, and brought back to light the frescoed convent church, the one that was in use until 1466.
