At the end of the thirteenth century Orvieto had a new urban structure and placed in a strategically central position the palace of the Seven with the tower called the Pope, 47 meters high and almost perfectly oriented according to the four cardinal points. Its imposing dimensions allowed. In fact, the visual domination of the vast territory of the Orvietano state, which extended to the west to the sea, to the east to the Preappenninic chain and to the north to the Cetona and Amiata mountains. In the 16th century the tower was named after Raffaele di Sante, known as il Moro, who also gave its name to the underlying Gualtiero palace it owned, and to the entire district. In 1865, at the height of eighteen meters, the distributing tank of the new aqueduct was placed in the tower of the Moor and, following the restoration of 1866, the mechanical clock and two civic bells were installed. The smallest bell came from the tower of Sant'Andrea and the largest from the Palazzo del Popolo. The palace of the Seven with the tower of the Moor, recently restored and used as a cultural center, belonged to the ancient Della Terza family, then was owned by the Papacy, seat of the Sette, and it seems that Antonio da Sangallo also lived there.

Santa Maria Assunta Cathedral is the main Catholic place of worship in Orvieto, the mother church of the diocese of Orvieto-Todi and a masterpiece of the Gothic architecture of Central Italy. In January 1889 Pope Leo XIII elevated it to the dignity of a minor basilica. The construction of the church was started in 1290 by the will of Pope Nicholas IV, in order to give worthy place to the Corporal of the miracle of Bolsena. Designed in Romanic style by an unknown artist (probably Arnolfo di Cambio), in the beginning the direction of the work was entrusted to Fra Bevignate from Perugia, who soon succeeded, before the end of the century, Giovanni di Uguccione, who introduced the first Gothic forms . At the beginning of the fourteenth century the Sienese sculptor and architect Lorenzo Maitani assumed the role of master builder of the work.