The church of Santa Maria dell'Oro

The convent of Santa Maria dell'Oro stands on the hill,on the outskirts of Terni,called "dell'Oro", the latter name has replaced the original "laurel" by lexical deformation, a very common plant in this place.

It was by the will of San Bernardino da Siena that the convent for a small community of Observant friars was built in this area. The works for its realization began at the end of 1441 and ended in 1458;the monastery could be reached through various paths opened by the friars themselves.

 Over the centuries the Santa Maria dell’Oro complex was transformed starting from the second half of the 16th century. Initially the convent was enlarged while in the second half of the 1600s the enlargement works affected the church, to which a forepart was added; in addition, the interior was embellished with a decorated wooden ceiling. The current appearance of the building is also the result of the renovation made necessary following the damage suffered by the earthquake of the early 18th century. Despite the various alterations - the eighteenth-century one was followed by another important one in the 20s of the last century - the church retains some elements of the original construction. Following the unification of Italy,as a result of the dissolution of congregations and convents, the friars left the convent complex. The works of art that were placed there were acquired by the Municipality of Terni. The work of greatest artistic value from the church of Santa Maria dell'Oro is "the Mystical Wedding of Santa Caternina" (1466) by Benozzo Gozzoli, now on permanent display at the "Aurelio De Felice" Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art at the CAOS of Terni.

Currently the church - elevated to a parish in 1910 and a diocesan sanctuary in 2005 - houses an altar polyptych dating from 1680,paintings from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries as well as a wooden crucifix from the fifteenth century. A copy of the aforementioned work by Gozzoli is placed above the main altar.