It is the largest church in Umbria and most visitors to Perugia never reach it, because it stands at the far end of the corso, where the city stops and the descent begins. San Domenico was begun in the early fourteenth century by the Dominicans, who wanted it enormous; then the vaults collapsed and in the seventeenth century Carlo Maderno rebuilt the interior, leaving outside the brick front that had stayed unfinished. The result is a white nave, very tall and almost empty, that surprises anyone who walks in.
What to see
At the end, behind the altar, is the window: twenty-one metres high by eight and a half wide, the second largest in Italy after the one in Milan cathedral, set in place in 1411 with hundreds of figured panels telling the stories of saints. When the sun comes through it, the church changes colour for an hour and nothing else is needed.
In the right transept is the tomb of pope Benedict XI, who died in Perugia in 1304 in circumstances never cleared up: a Gothic marble canopy with the pontiff lying in state, angels drawing back the curtains and the Virgin above, the work of one of the great sculptors of the time. In the convent next door, around the cloisters, is the National Archaeological Museum of Umbria, with its Etruscan collections and the Perugia cippus, the longest known inscription in the Etruscan language.
Visiting
The basilica is in piazza Giordano Bruno, ten minutes on foot from piazza IV Novembre along corso Cavour; free entry, closed at midday and during services. Half an hour, an hour and a half with the archaeological museum, which has its own ticket and hours. A little further on is the gate of San Pietro and the medieval city ends.
Our editors' tip
Come in the late afternoon and stand in the middle of the nave, not in front of the window: from a distance you see the colours cast on the floor and the columns, and you understand why a Gothic church was built with that huge hole at the end. Then go into the museum cloister, which is free as far as the ticket desk and in summer is the coolest place in Perugia.