This is really a group of buildings constructed from 1464 onwards, on the place where Santa Caterina's family home was.

The Shrine consists of an upper Oratory, which was once the kitchen; the lower Oratory which was her father's workshop (he was named Jacopo and worked as a dyer); the Oratory of the Camera, which was Caterina's cell or bedroom; and also the Oratory of the Crucifixion which was built on the household vegetable garden.
Santa Caterina lived between 1347 and 1380 and was a Dominican tertiary. She was devoured by her love for Christ and was given the stigmata. She worked tirelessly for the reform of the Church and the return of the Papacy from Avignon, which finally took place in 1377. Her writings have great mystical and spiritual power; she was proclaimed saint in 1461. In 1939, both Santa Caterina and San Francesco were named patron saints of Italy and April 30 was designated as her feast day.
17 paintings narrating the saint's life and dating to the period between the 16th and 17th centuries can be seen in the Upper Oratory, while you will find the crucifix in front of which Caterina received the stigmata in the Oratory of the Crucifixion. Here, on the left-hand altar there is a beautiful baroque work by the Sienese painter, Rutilio Manetti, which shows the canonisation of Santa Caterina.
The Oratory of the Camera is interesting not so much for the works of art which decorate it but because you can see the cell where the saint lived and prayed.
The lower Oratory is commonly called both the church of Santa Caterina in Fonte Branda and the Oratory of the Contrada dell'Oca. This is a beautiful 15th century building with a striking wooden statue of the saint on the altar that was sculpted around 1474 by the Sienese artist, Neroccio di Bartolomeo.

From the Vicolo del Tiratoio, go along Costa Sant'Antonio and Via della Sapienza into Piazza di San Domenico which is flanked by the great brick mass of the church.