Matelica Cathedral ( or ''Chiesa di Santa Maria Assunta'') 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 ...

Matelica Matelica is a (municipality) of the Province of Macerata in the Italian region of Marche. Located about southwest of Ancona and west of Macerata, it extends over an area of . Geography Matelica lies in an ample valley where the Braccano ...

Marche Marche ( ; ), in English sometimes referred to as the Marches ( ) from the Italian name of the region (Le Marche), is one of the Regions of Italy, twenty regions of Italy. The region is located in the Central Italy, central area of the country, ...

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, dedicated to the

Assumption of the Virgin Mary The Assumption of Mary is one of the four Marian dogmas of the Catholic Church. Pope Pius XII defined it on 1 November 1950 in his apostolic constitution as follows: It leaves open the question of whether Mary died or whether she was ra ...

. Formerly the episcopal seat of the Diocese of Matelica, it is now a

co-cathedral A co-cathedral is a cathedral church which shares the function of being a bishop's seat, or ''cathedra'', with another cathedral, often in another city (usually a former see, anchor city of the metropolitan area or the civil capital). Instances o ...

in the Diocese of Fabriano-Matelica.

History and description

The first cathedral of Matelica was built in the historical centre of the town, but fell into ruin after the bishop's seat was moved elsewhere, and was finally demolished in 1530. It had already been replaced as the town's main church in the 15th century by the church of Santa Maria della Piazza, which was made the cathedral under the name of Santa Maria Assunta in 1785 when Matelica was restored as a bishopric. The

campanile A bell tower is a tower that contains one or more bells, or that is designed to hold bells even if it has none. Such a tower commonly serves as part of a Christian church, and will contain church bells, but there are also many secular bell to ...

, which dates from the 15th century, is most unusually positioned in the centre of the cathedral's west front. This has sometimes led to suppositions over whether the present church building occupies the same position as the original church or whether repeated re-buildings and restorations over time have had the effect of moving it. Among the works of art in the cathedral, of particular note for the fine quality of the workmanship is an 18th-century

crucifix A crucifix (from the Latin meaning '(one) fixed to a cross') is a cross with an image of Jesus on it, as distinct from a bare cross. The representation of Jesus himself on the cross is referred to in English as the (Latin for 'body'). The cru ...

in wood and silver by Giovanni Giardini of

Forlì Forlì ( ; ; ; ) is a ''comune'' (municipality) and city in Emilia-Romagna, Northern Italy, and is, together with Cesena, the capital of the Province of Forlì-Cesena.The city is situated along the Via Emilia, to the east of the Montone river, ...

References

Website of the Diocese of Fabriano-Matelica: parish of the cathedral

{{coord, 43.2576, N, 13.0087, E, source:wikidata, display=title Roman Catholic cathedrals in Italy Roman Catholic churches in Matelica Cathedrals in the Marche