Cathedral of Nocera Umbra

The church of Saint Maria Assunta is a Catholic parish church in Nocera Umbra, in Umbria, and co-cathedral of the diocese of Assisi-Nocera Umbra-Gualdo Tadino.

The cathedral of Nocera probably rests on the foundations of a temple dedicated to the goddess Favonia, who gave the name to one of the two tribes of the founders of Nocera , the Favonienses. The church existed for sure before the year thousand, and was the most ancient church of the territory. The most probable location is the top of the hill where medieval Nocera rose. During the middle ages the town was a best equipped fortress ramparted by the Lombards in defense of the Duchy of Spoleto against the Byzantines who controlled Gualdo Tadino and Gubbio. The dedicatio is surely that one of Maria Assunta, festivity that in the west reached its apogee in the centuries VIII-IX. Historical documents attest the existence of a Romanesque cathedral already in the XI-XII century. In the XI century the church was the family chapel of the comital family. The shrine – named Sancta Maria infra Arcem – lay inside the city fortress, destroyed by Emperor Frederick II in the struggle between Guelphs and Ghibellines in 1248. Abandoned in ruins, in this period the church then called Sancta Maria vetus, placed where today is the church of S. Giovanni of the monastery of the Poor Clares, assumed the function of cathedral. Only in the mid-fifteenth century was undertaken the reconstruction of the old cathedral: the work began in 1448, exactly two hundred years after its devastation. In July 1487 were buried in the church the relics of St. Raynald, patron saint of the city, whose remains rest today under the high altar. The bell tower was finished in 1544. Further interventions were carried out in the 18th century with the transformation of the cathedral in Baroque style, and in the 19th century. The facade was completed in 1925.

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