Ancona Cathedral (, ''Basilica Cattedrale Metropolitana di San Ciriaco'') is a

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

cathedral A cathedral is a church (building), church that contains the of a bishop, thus serving as the central church of a diocese, Annual conferences within Methodism, conference, or episcopate. Churches with the function of "cathedral" are usually s ...

Ancona Ancona (, also ; ) is a city and a seaport in the Marche region of central Italy, with a population of around 101,997 . Ancona is the capital of the province of Ancona, homonymous province and of the region. The city is located northeast of Ro ...

, central Italy, dedicated to Saint

Cyriacus Cyriacus (, fl. 303 AD), sometimes Anglicized as Cyriac, according to Christian tradition, is a Christian martyr who was killed in the Diocletianic Persecution. He is one of twenty-seven saints, most of them martyrs, who bear this name, of whom ...

. It is the seat of the Archbishop of Ancona. The building is an example of mixed Romanesque-

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also known as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire centred on Constantinople during late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Having survived the events that caused the fall of the Western Roman E ...

and Gothic elements, and stands on the site of the former

acropolis An acropolis was the settlement of an upper part of an ancient Greek city, especially a citadel, and frequently a hill with precipitous sides, mainly chosen for purposes of defense. The term is typically used to refer to the Acropolis of Athens ...

of the

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

city, the Guasco hill which overlooks Ancona and its gulf. Vittore Carpaccio represented the Ancona Catheral in his 1502 painting, '' St. George and the Dragon.''

History

Excavations carried on in 2016 indicated that an Italic temple was on the site as early as the 3rd century BC. A Christian church was built on top of it in the 6th century. In 995–1015 a new church was built, which kept the original walls, and was enlarged between the late 12th and the early 13th centuries. In 1883 it was restored again. During

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

and again in World War II bombings the church was damaged, and rebuilt each time. Further damage was caused by an earthquake in 1972, followed by a new restoration.

Description

Exterior

The edifice is built in white stone from

Mount Conero Monte Conero () or Mount Conero, also known as Monte d'Ancona (Mount of Ancona), is a promontory in Italy, situated directly south of the port of Ancona on the Adriatic Sea. The name ''Conero'' comes from the Greek name (''Kómaros'') and indic ...

, with apses protruding from the transept's ends and an elevated body, with a dome at the crossing, in correspondence to the nave. All the external surfaces feature a decoration of

Lombard band A Lombard band is a decorative blind arcade, usually located on the exterior of building. It was frequently used during the Romanesque and Gothic periods of Western architecture. It resembles a frieze of arches. Lombard bands are believed to ...

s. The bell tower is in an isolated position. It is mentioned from 1314 and was built above a pre-existing late 13th-century tower. The façade, divided into three section, is preceded by a wide staircase; above it is a 13th-century Romanesque portal formed by a round arch supported by four columns. The anterior ones stand on lions in Veronese red marble, while the rear ones, added later by

Luigi Vanvitelli Luigi Vanvitelli (; 12 May 1700 – 1 March 1773), known in Dutch as (), was an Italian architect and painter. The most prominent 18th-century architect of Italy, he practised a sober classicising academic Late Baroque style that made an ea ...

, are on a simple pedestal. Under the arches are four reliefs depicting the symbols of the

Evangelists Evangelist(s) may refer to: Religion * Four Evangelists, the authors of the canonical Christian Gospels * Evangelism, publicly preaching the Gospel with the intention of spreading the teachings of Jesus Christ * Evangelist (Anglican Church), a ...

. The portal is attributed to Giorgio da Como (c. 1228), and is in Romanesque-Gothic style, built in Conero white stone from

and Veronese red marble. It is decorated by a series of columns holding ogival arches with reliefs of saints' busts, animal figures and vegetable motifs. Above the portal is a large oculus with a Romanesque frame between two single

mullioned window A mullion is a vertical element that forms a division between units of a window or screen, or is used decoratively. It is also often used as a division between double doors. When dividing adjacent window units its primary purpose is a rigid sup ...

s. The dome is one of the most ancient in Italy. It has an ogival shape with a dodecagonal drum, standing on a square base with small decorative arches. It was built over the crossing in the 13th century, and is attributed to

Margaritone d'Arezzo Margarito, Margaritone da Arezzo or Margaritone d'Arezzo (fl. ) was an Italian painter from Arezzo, in Tuscany. Margaritone's given name was Margarito, but it was transcribed erroneously by Giorgio Vasari, Vasari as "Margaritone". It is by t ...

(1270). Together with the church of Sant'Antonio at

Padua Padua ( ) is a city and ''comune'' (municipality) in Veneto, northern Italy, and the capital of the province of Padua. The city lies on the banks of the river Bacchiglione, west of Venice and southeast of Vicenza, and has a population of 20 ...

and

St. Mark's Basilica The Patriarchal Cathedral Basilica of Saint Mark (), commonly known as St Mark's Basilica (; ), is the cathedral church of the Patriarchate of Venice; it became the episcopal seat of the Patriarch of Venice in 1807, replacing the earlier cathed ...

Venice Venice ( ; ; , formerly ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 islands that are separated by expanses of open water and by canals; portions of the city are li ...

, it was one of the few contemporary examples of domes built in churches, instead than in separate baptisteries. The copper cover was added in the 16th century.

Interior

The interior is on the

Greek cross The Christian cross, with or without a figure of Jesus, Christ included, is the main religious symbol of Christianity. A cross with a figure of Christ affixed to it is termed a crucifix and the figure is often referred to as the ''corpus'' (La ...

plan. All the arms are divided into a nave and two aisles, with re-used antique Roman columns with Byzantine capitals. At the crossing is the internal part of the dome, which has

pendentive In architecture, a pendentive is a constructional device permitting the placing of a circular dome over a square room or of an elliptical dome over a rectangular room. The pendentives, which are triangular segments of a sphere, taper to point ...

s with Byzantine-style figures of praying angels. The dome is supported by cruciform cluster piers. The side arms of the transept end in elevated apses, while the central arm of the presbytery lost the original apse during the enlargement works of the 18th century. All the naves have hull-shaped, painted wooden vaults dating from the 15th century. At the beginning of the northern nave is the monument to a

Fermo Fermo (; ancient: Firmum Picenum) is a town and ''comune'' of the Marche, Italy, in the Province of Fermo. Fermo is on a hill, the Sabulo, elevation , on a branch from Porto San Giorgio on the Adriatic coast railway. History The oldest huma ...

warrior from 1530. The south transept is home to the Chapel of the Crucifix. Its screens (''transennae'') are formed by tiles with

sgraffito (; ) is an artistic or decorative technique of scratching through a coating on a hard surface to reveal parts of another underlying coating which is in a contrasting colour. It is produced on walls by applying layers of plaster tinted in con ...

decoration from a balustrade of 1189. They depict, on the left,

Jeremiah Jeremiah ( – ), also called Jeremias, was one of the major prophets of the Hebrew Bible. According to Jewish tradition, Jeremiah authored the Book of Jeremiah, book that bears his name, the Books of Kings, and the Book of Lamentations, with t ...

and

Habakkuk Habakkuk or Habacuc is the main figure described in the Book of Habakkuk, the eighth of the Twelve Minor Prophets in the Hebrew Bible. He is traditionally regarded as a prophet active around 612 BCE. Almost all information about Habakkuk is dr ...

; the Eternal Father and the Blessed Virgin; an angel and Saint

John the Evangelist John the Evangelist ( – ) is the name traditionally given to the author of the Gospel of John. Christians have traditionally identified him with John the Apostle, John of Patmos, and John the Presbyter, although there is no consensus on how ...

; and Saint Cyriacus; and, on the right, figures of animals: two cranes on a pomegranate tree, an eagle, two peacocks on a tree and two gryphons. In the Crypt of Tears below, rebuilt after the devastation of World War II, are remains of ancient structures. The presbytery's arms house, in the northern aisles, the sepulchre of Blessed Girolamo Ginelli (d. 1506), made in 1509 by

Giovanni Dalmata Giovanni Dalmata (; c. 1440 – c. 1514), born Ioannes Stephani Duknovich de Tragurio, also known as Giovanni Duknovich di Traù in Italy and Ivan Stjepanov Duknović in Croatia, was a sculpture, sculptor from Trogir, Dalmatia, who was mainly acti ...

. The northern transept houses the Madonna Chapel, with a lavishly decorated niche designed by

in 1739, which is the site of a venerated 17th century image of the Madonna. Under the chapel is a crypt with the remains of

Saint Cyriacus Cyriacus (, fl. 303 AD), sometimes Anglicized as Cyriac, according to Christian tradition, is a Christian martyr who was killed in the Diocletianic Persecution. He is one of twenty-seven saints, most of them martyrs, who bear this name, of whom ...

(in a marble case), Saints Liberius and Marcellinus (in Sicilian jasper) and the ashes of

Saint Palatia Palatias and Laurentia () (died 302 AD) are martyrs venerated by the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches. According to tradition, Palatias or Palatia was an aristocratic Roman woman who was converted to Christianity by her wet nurse or s ...

. The urns with bronze festoons were designed and executed between 1757 and 1760 by Gioacchino Varlè.

Photos

File:S, Ciriaco AN vista ingresso.JPG, Main entrance File:AN S.Ciriaco ingresso..JPG, Main entrance File:Ancona S.Ciriaco leone.JPG, Lion to the left of the entrance File:S.Ciriaco leone.JPG, The same File:Ancona S.Ciriaco leoni.JPG, Both lions at the entrance File:Ancona S.Ciriaco ingresso laterale.JPG, Side entrance File:Ancona S.Ciriaco campanile.JPG, ''Campanile'' File:AN S. Ciriaco sinistra.JPG, Portico from the south File:AN Duomo posteriore.JPG, East end File:Scalone Nappi AN.JPG, The Nappi stairs File:Ancona S.Ciriaco museo diocesano.JPG, Museum entrance File:S. Ciriaco cortile museo.JPG, Museum courtyard File:Ancona, Duomo di San Ciriaco, X-XII secolo (22).JPG, The miraculous painting of the Madonna also known as ''Regina Sanctorum Omnium''

Sources

External links

Page at Medioevo.org art website
{{Authority control Buildings and structures completed in 1017 Churches completed in the 1010s 11th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in Italy Roman Catholic churches in Ancona Romanesque architecture in le Marche Gothic architecture in le Marche Byzantine architecture Roman Catholic cathedrals in Italy Cathedrals in the Marche Minor basilicas in Marche Church buildings with domes