Overview
The building is deliberately austere — a preaching barn with a single wide nave and no aisles, built to hold a crowd listening rather than a procession moving. Andrea Vanni’s portrait of Catherine, painted in her lifetime, hangs in a chapel near the entrance and is the only likeness taken from life. Her body is in Rome; Siena obtained the head in 1383, which was normal practice for a relic of that importance and is startling to see.
Highlights
The chapel of Saint Catherine is halfway down the right side, frescoed by Sodoma with her ecstasy and her swoon. From the terrace outside the west door the cathedral stands across the valley at eye level, which is the best free view in Siena. Her house, the Santuario di Santa Caterina, is a five-minute walk downhill.