Todi - Santa María de la Consolación

Todi was founded by the Umbri, in the 8th-7th century BC. The settlement on top of a mountain was named "Tutere", which meant "border", as it was located on the frontier with the Etruscans` area. It was conquered by the Romans in 217 BC and changed its name to Tuder.

Christianity reached Todi very early and already in the 2nd century, a bishop resided here. The Ostrogoths took the town after a siege and in 759 the Longobards followed. After negotiations between Pope Paul I and Desiderius, the last King of the Lombards and Charlemagne´s father-in-law, Todi became incorporated into the Duchy of Rome.

In 771 Charlemagne had the marriage annulled. Soon after he attacked and defeated Desiderius, assumed the title King of the Lombards (774), and disposed of his ex-father-in-law, who lived the rest of his life in the abbey of Corbie


Santa Maria della Consolazione is a Renaissance-style pilgrimage church. The original project is sometimes attributed to Donato Bramante, despite the absence of documentation. Cola da Caprarola began construction in 1508 just outside the walls. The design has a Greek cross plan. The church was completed only by 1607. The apse is surmounted by a square terrace with four eagles at the corners, from which the dome rises.

Legend holds that a worker, who was blind in one eye, had the sight of that eye restored when he wiped it with a cloth that had cleaned an icon of the Madonna. The church was built at the site where the icon had been housed, and now contains the icon at the altar.

The dome.