The Basilica di San Francesco is a Gothic-style, Roman Catholic church located on the Piazza del Popolo in the town of Ascoli Piceno in the region of Marche, Italy.
Construction of the structure began in 1258, and the church was consecrated in 1371. The church has a Latin cross layout with three naves, divided by hexagonal pilasters. The tall hexagonal bell-tower near the apse was completed in the 15th century, and the copper-sheathed cupola (1548) and ribbed ceilings were not completed until the 16th century. The main facade is in a narrow alley, and has three portals, each with a peaked tympanum and thin elaborate pilasters. The central portal is decorated with highly sculpted travertine marble with a detached column with lions atop capitals, showing persisting Romanesque influences. The top of the tympanum has a sculpture of a lamb, a symbol of the guild of wool merchants, who patronized construction. [1]
The east flank of the church encompasses the five arches of the Loggia dei Mercanti (1513), designed by Bernardino da Carona. The west flank of the church abuts the Chiostro Maggiore. [2]
Along the right flank of the church, facing the Piazza del Popolo, is a lateral entrance surmounted by a monument to Pope Julius II (1506–10). The entrance has a rounded arch flanked by receding sets of corded pilasters. The lunette above the door has a fresco. The monument above the pedestal has a statue of the seated pope in the act of blessing, inside a rounded niche, flanked by statues of holy figures each in their niche. The plaque below translates to: Julius II Pontifex Maximus, restored liberty and expelled the Tyrants. The people of Ascoli erected statues in the year of our savior 1510 [3] This monument honors the pope for imprisoning the Ghibelline tyrant, Astolto Guiderocchi, who had taken control of the city in 1504. [4]
A few meters to the north of the portal of Julius, on the outer wall of the right transept, is an aedicule built against the church. It consists of a portal like structure with an iron grill protecting a venerated image of the Madonna adoring her Son. A protruding rounded tympanum with an angel and a garland are sustained by two Corinthian columns. The aedicule has three rounded steps in front. Tradition attributes the design (1639) to Lazzaro Morelli, a pupil of Bernini, [5] but others attribute it to Silvio Giosafatti.
The 17th-century travertine pulpit was completed by Antonio Giosafatti. The presbytery has three apses. The ogival windows frame stained glass windows. The sacristy contains and altarpiece depicting the Jesus and the Apostles by Cola dell'Amatrice. It also contains paintings by Biagio Miniera, and Nicola Monti (depicting the Blessed Beato Corrado). The adjacent building, the former Franciscan monastery has two cloisters. The larger cloister, Chiostro Maggiore also called the Piazza della Verdura houses a daily food market. [6]
Ascoli Piceno is a comune (municipality) and capital of the province of Ascoli Piceno, in the Italian region of Marche.
Feltre is a town and comune of the province of Belluno in Veneto, northern Italy. A hill town in the southern reaches of the province, it is located on the Stizzon River, about 4 kilometres from its junction with the Piave, and 20 km (12 mi) southwest from Belluno. The Dolomites loom to the north of the town.
Pacentro is a comune of 1,279 inhabitants of the province of L'Aquila in Abruzzo, Italy. It is a well-preserved historic medieval village located in central Italy, several kilometers from the City of Sulmona about 170 kilometres (110 mi) east of Rome. It is one of I Borghi più belli d'Italia.
Ripatransone is a comune (municipality) in the Province of Ascoli Piceno in the Italian region Marche, located about 70 kilometres (43 mi) southeast of Ancona and about 20 kilometres (12 mi) northeast of Ascoli Piceno.
Santo Stefano de Pinea or more commonly Santo Stefano del Cacco is a church in Rome dedicated to Saint Stephen, located at Via di Santo Stefano del Cacco 26.
San Benedetto is a late-Baroque architecture, Roman Catholic church and former Benedictine monastery in the city Catania, Sicily, southern Italy. The church facade faces Via Crociferi, parallels across via San Benedetto the former-Jesuit church of San Francesco Borgia, and both are about a block south along Crociferi from the church and convent of San Giuliano. Entrance to church and monastery appear to be through Piazza Asmundo #9 near the apse of the church.
Palazzo dell'Arengo is a monumental palace located on Piazza Arringo, also called Piazza dell'Arengo, in the town-center of Ascoli Piceno, Marche, central Italy. The facades of the Duomo of Ascoli Piceno, the Baptistry of San Giovanni Battista, and the Episcopal palace also face the square, which is now decorated with two oval fountains.
The Montemirabile or Saint John the Baptist Chapel, otherwise the Baptistery is the first side chapel in the left aisle in the Basilica of Santa Maria del Popolo.
The Diocese of Montalto was a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory or diocese of the Catholic Church located in the town of Montalto delle Marche in the Province of Ascoli Piceno in the Italian region Le Marche. The diocese was erected in 1586 by Pope Sixtus V, a native of the town. The diocese was suppressed in 1986, and its territory was assigned to a new entity, called the Diocese of San Benedetto del Tronto–Ripatransone–Montalto.
The Ventidio Basso Theater is the communal theater, concert hall, and opera house in the city of Ascoli Piceno region of Marche, Italy. It is located on via del Trivio, in front main cloister of the church of San Francesco, near piazza del Popolo. The exterior was erected in neoclassical-style, with grand interiors.
Ripatransone Cathedral is a Roman Catholic cathedral and minor basilica in the town of Ripatransone, province of Ascoli Piceno, region of Marche, Italy. It is located on Piazza Ascanio Condivi. The cathedral is dedicated to Saint Gregory the Great and to Saint Margaret. It was formerly the episcopal seat of the Diocese of Ripatransone but is now a co-cathedral in the Diocese of San Benedetto del Tronto-Ripatransone-Montalto.
San Tommaso Apostolo is a Romanesque and Gothic-style, Roman Catholic church located in the town of Ascoli Piceno in the region of Marche, Italy.
San Pietro Martire is a Gothic-style, Roman Catholic Basilica church located at piazzetta at the intersection of Via delle Torrei, Soderini, and Solestà in the town of Ascoli Piceno in the region of Marche, Italy.
San Maria Inter Vineas is a late-Romanesque and early-Gothic-style, Roman Catholic church located on Largo del Cremore in the town of Ascoli Piceno in the region of Marche, Italy.
San Cristoforo is a Baroque-style Roman Catholic church located on Rua d'Argillano in the town of Ascoli Piceno in the region of Marche, Italy.
The Diocesan Museum in the Italian town of Ascoli Piceno is located in one wing of the ecclesiastical palazzo, which also contains the city's pinacoteca and the state archeological museum.
Santa Maria delle Panette is a Baroque-style Roman Catholic church and Marian shrine located at the fork of Via Maria Concezione and Via delle Panette, about 400 meters from the western edge of the historic center of the town of Monte San Giusto, province of Macerata, in the region of Marche, Italy.
The Ascoli Piceno Baptistery, also known as the baptistery of Saint John, is a religious building found on the eastern end of the piazza Arringo at the center of Ascoli Piceno and sitting next to and just north of the cathedral dedicated to St. Emygdius, the city's patron saint.
Montalto Cathedral, otherwise the Basilica of Santa Maria Assunta e San Vito, is the principal Roman Catholic church of the town of Montalto delle Marche, province of Ascoli Piceno in the region of Le Marche, Italy. It is dedicated to the Assumption of the Virgin Mary. The church was formerly, from 1586, the episcopal seat of the Diocese of Montalto. When the diocese was subsumed into the present Diocese of San Benedetto del Tronto–Ripatransone–Montalto in 1986, Montalto Cathedral became a co-cathedral in the new diocese. It was created a basilica minor by Pope Paul VI in 1965.
Santi Pietro e Paolo is a Romanesque and Gothic Roman Catholic church located at Piazza San Pietro in the center of the town of Castignano, in the province of Ascoli Piceno, region of Marche, Italy.