Interior view

The church is centrally planned and can be regarded as a simplified version of Donato Bramante’s designs for St Peter’s, Rome, on which work had begun in 1506. A contract for 1509 specifies only three apses, leaving uncertainty as to whether the final form would be centralized or longitudinal, as happened with St Peter’s.

The clarity of the planning is heightened by the sparse decoration of the interior. Pietra serena, set against plain white walls, is employed to emphasize the geometrical units and to articulate the window and side altar aedicules along with the ribs of the domes. It seems likely, however, that the design for the church was by Bramante with Cola in charge of the building work, as the site architect. He may have been responsible for some of the internal detailing, which shows a knowledge of the centralized church of Santa Maria del Calcinaio (begun 1484) at Cortona by Francesco di Giorgio Martini.

View the ground plan and section of the building.