Chiesa Santa Maria Nuova

Welcome to Santa Maria Nuova, one of the oldest churches in Viterbo, built before 1080 in Romanesque style with Lombard influences. The interior is divided into three naves with a striking trussed ceiling, decorated in the fifteenth century, and walls frescoed by Viterbese artists including Matteo Giovannetti and Francesco d'Antonio Zacchi. Among the most precious works, a thirteenth-century triptych depicting Christ blessing between the Virgin and Saint John, and a high altar dating back to the twelfth century. On the external pulpit, in 1266, Saint Thomas Aquinas preached. The adjoining rectory was for centuries the heart of civic life in the city, hosting Popular Assemblies and General Councils until 1574. Behind the church lies the Lombard cloister, discovered only in 1954: an intimate space with small arches on columns and Romanesque pillars, which restorations have revealed to have also been used as a place of collective burial.