According to tradition, the foundations of the cathedral dates to the 9th century, when two natives of the region who had been pilgrims in the
Holy Land, Arcanus and Giles (or Egidio and Arcano), returned and settled on the site. There they built a chapel dedicated to
Saint Leonard and established a monastic way of life. They had brought a stone from the
Church of the Holy Sepulcher in
Jerusalem (thus,
San Sepolcro) with them from that shrine, leading it to become a popular
pilgrimage site. The first historical mention of a
Benedictine monastery, dedicated to the Holy Sepulcher and the
Four Evangelists, is documented as of 1012; the
Abbey of Sansepolcro. The church was constructed in 1012–1049, initially dedicated to the Four Evangelists and the
Holy Sepulchre (deriving from Sansepolcro's name). The monastery was declared an
abbey nullius. A
commune began to develop around the abbey due to its being declared a
market town in 1038 by the Emperor
Conrad II. During the 12th century, the monastery, a holder of numerous properties around central Italy in its own right, elected to be incorporated into the
Camaldolese Order, based in the region. The monastic
chapter soon (13th century) tore down the original chapel and built a large
Romanesque-style church, dedicated to St.
John the Evangelist (the
patron saint of the city) to serve its spiritual needs. In 1520, the monastic community was suppressed and the abbey nullius was promoted by the
Holy See to the rank of a regular
diocese, for which the abbey church was declared the
cathedral.
Pope Leo X established the
diocese of Sansepolcro, with the church becoming its cathedral; the cathedral was re-dedicated to the city's patron, St. John the Evangelist. The first
bishop appointed to lead the diocese was the last
abbot of the abbey,
Galeotto Graziani, O.Cam. The
episcopal palace for the diocese stands on the site of the former monastery and its
cloister, still with 15th-century frescoes depicting the life of
St. Benedict, as well as the tomb of the artist
Piero della Francesca, a native of the city. Large restoration works were carried on between 1934 and 1943, destroying most of the Baroque elements added in the course of the centuries to the original medieval edifice. Several frescoes by the
Riminese school and by
Bartolomeo della Gatta (14th-15th centuries) become visible again, and a new chapel, called
Cappella del Volto Santo, was added to house the so-called "Holy Face" icon, previously located at the altar. A new choir was built in 1966–1967. The church became a
co-cathedral with the merge of the dioceses of Arezzo, Sansepolcro and Cortona in 1986. ==Description==