Urbino’s Cathedral, the Duomo, was built by the bishop Beato Mainardo in 1062 and dedicated to Virgin Mary of the Assumption. In the 15th century it was rebuilt again, and at the end of the 18th century it took its final neoclassical style.
The interior shows the classical approach of the architect Giuseppe Valadier, who worked in the church between 1789 and 1801: it is large and solemn, vast, elegant and noble. The dome is decorated with the images of the four evangelists made by different painters. In the high altar there is a big painting of C. Unterberger portraying the ‘Virgin of Assumption’, to whom the cathedral is dedicated.
In the previous centuries the Cathedral had a different shape and other artists worked on its project and design. When duke Federico was alive, Francesco di Giorgio Martini himself designed the whole worship building. The works to implement the Sienese architect’s project lasted until 1604.
The interior of the cathedral is divided into a nave and two aisles: in the nave there is the altar (in the past damaged by the fall of the dome), and the bronzes, made by Camillo Rusconi. Several paintings decorate the church; among the most famous ones: "the transfer of the Holy house of Loreto" by Claudio Ridolfi, the "Martyrdom of S.Sebastiano" by Federico Barocci and the "Annunciation" by Raffaello Motta.
The grand Cathedral in Neoclassical style, contains the Albani Museum and the Oratory of the Grotta, a place of worship and piety tied to tradition of the Holy week, and now, as an exhibition space, the fulcrum of the ecclesiastic artistic heritage of Urbino.

The cathedral of Urbino is currently closed for restoration.