Santa Caterina delle bastarde

In the worn sandstone Gothic portal, the date 1402 or 1452 can be read. Dedicated to Saint Catherine of Alexandria, it is popularly called the “Bastarde” because it was once a female orphanage and was home to the Ospedale delle Esposte and the Monte di Pietà. During the 17th century, the interior was completely renovated and has a single nave with niches that house life-size stucco statues of Cardinal Virtues and Doctors of the Church by Tommaso Amantini, a student of Brandani.

The high altar in gilded wood and carved by Gian Giacomo Zuccari, uncle of the brothers Taddeo and Federico Zuccari, illustrious painters of the 16th and 17th centuries, houses an Altarpiece with the Martyrdom of Saint Catherine by Schiaminossi and a series of oil paintings by Braganti that show the Stories of Saint Catherine with valuable stucco frames.