The cathedral is the most important church in Conegliano, in the diocese of Vittorio Veneto. It stands on the north side of Via XX Settembre, the Contrada Granda, between Porta Dante and Piazza Cima, and forms a single complex with the Scuola dei Battuti. It was born in the fourteenth century as Santa Maria dei Battuti and was consecrated on 5 June 1491; today it is dedicated to Santa Maria Annunziata and to St Leonard, patron of the town. To St Leonard was dedicated the old cathedral, which stood on top of the hill, in the castle complex, and no longer exists: the title was transferred here after 1757.
What to see
From the street, only the top of the church façade shows, with its cross: it is hidden by the building of the Scuola dei Battuti, with its portico of nine pointed arches and the front that in 1593 Ludovico Pozzoserrato covered with frescoes of biblical figures and episodes. Under the portico, six steps lead to the portal; in the lunette is a Madonna and Child frescoed in the sixteenth century by Francesco Beccaruzzi. The brick bell tower goes back in its essential parts to 1497: on the face that looks onto the Contrada it has the clock and, below, a Latin inscription about the hours, «Vulnerant omnes, ultima necat», they all wound, the last one kills.
The interior has a nave and two aisles, with pointed arches and cross vaults that partly keep the fifteenth-century decoration by Jacopo Collet da Arten and Desiderio da Feltre. In the apse hangs the altarpiece by Cima da Conegliano, a large panel of the Madonna enthroned with the Child among angels and saints, commissioned in 1492 and kept in the cathedral ever since. Along the walls are the St Catherine Baptised by the Hermit by Palma il Giovane, of 1585, above the portal; the St Francis Receiving the Stigmata by Beccaruzzi, of 1545; an Annunciation by Pozzoserrato. In the first chapel to the left of the portal stands the fifteenth-century baptismal font, brought here from the church of Arfanta.
Visiting
Opening times of the church and of the Sala dei Battuti should be checked with the cathedral parish. The hall occupies the whole first floor above the portico, and its walls are frescoed in panels: the older cycle, with scenes from the Gospel, is by Francesco da Milano and dates from 1511; at the end of the century Pozzoserrato added the episodes that serve as its prologue, from the Creation to original sin.
Our editors' tip
The bells carry their own story in writing. On all four bells of the ring is the same Latin inscription, which says: the enemy's fury broke me, but from the enemy's bronze I rose again to sing Italy and God with a clear voice. Another inscription recalls that the old bells were carried off by the Austro-Hungarians during the Great War.
