Cathedral of San Lorenzo

The main church in Grosseto occupies the central piazza of the old town and dates to the 13th century, though it was substantially rebuilt and extended over the following two hundred years. The striped marble facade — alternating bands of white and dark greenish-black — is characteristic of the Sienese Gothic style.

Inside, the most notable works are a baptismal font from 1470–74 and a Madonna della Grazia painted by Matteo di Giovanni, a Sienese painter who worked in the region. The space is cool and relatively uncrowded — Grosseto doesn't attract the visitor numbers of Florence or Siena, and the cathedral reflects that.

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A story
The cathedral was begun in the 13th century but construction dragged on for nearly two centuries, which explains why the facade mixes Romanesque and Gothic elements in a striped black-and-white marble pattern typical of Sienese Gothic. The black marble comes from the same quarries used for the Siena Cathedral — Grosseto was within the Sienese sphere of influence, and the shared aesthetic makes that clear.