San Francesco alle Scale is a church in

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 Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

History

Sited at the top of a staircase leading to the eponymous square, the church was founded in 1323 by the

Franciscan The Franciscans are a group of related organizations in the Catholic Church, founded or inspired by the Italian saint Francis of Assisi. They include three independent Religious institute, religious orders for men (the Order of Friars Minor bei ...

s, and was originally dedicated to Santa Maria Maggiore. It obtained the current denomination in the mid-15th century. In 1454, the Dalmatian master

Giorgio da Sebenico Giorgio da Sebenico () or Giorgio Orsini or Juraj Dalmatinac (; c. 1410 – 10 October 1473) was a Venetian sculptor and architect from Dalmatia, who worked mainly in Sebenico (now Šibenik, Croatia), and in the city of Ancona, then a maritim ...

executed the portal, inspired to the late Gothic one of the Porta della Carta in the

Ducal Palace Several palaces are named Ducal Palace (Italian: ''Palazzo Ducale'' ) because it was the seat or residence of a duke. Notable palaces with the name include: France *Palace of the Dukes of Burgundy, Dijon *Palace of the Dukes of Lorraine, Nancy *Pa ...

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 ...

. In the 18th century the church was raised and enlarged by design of architect Francesco Maria Ciaraffoni, who also built the two annexed monastery and the two cloisters. After the Napoleonic occupation the complex was used as a hospital and, from the 1920s, as a Civic Museum. The church was restored and reopened in 1953. The 18th-century bell tower, which had been destroyed by an Allied bombardment in 1944, was rebuilt at the same time.

Description

The main feature of the façade is the portal, designed by

with an ornate frame featuring twenty heads and, at the sides, two tall pilasters housing four niches with statues of saints. Above the portal is a Gothic

lunette A lunette (French ''lunette'', 'little moon') is a crescent- or half-moon–shaped or semi-circular architectural space or feature, variously filled with sculpture, painted, glazed, filled with recessed masonry, or void. A lunette may also be ...

with a bas-relief of ''St. Francis receiving the Stigmata'' and, above it, a shell supporting a hexagonal baldachin. The portal leads to a staircase which was rebuilt in the 1920s. The interior has a single nave and is in 18th-century style. It houses a ''Baptism of Christ'' by

Pellegrino Tibaldi San Sebastiano (Milan) Pellegrino Tibaldi (1527, Valsolda - 27 May 1596, Milan), also known as Pellegrino di Tibaldo de Pellegrini, was an Italian mannerist architect, sculptor, and mural painter. Biography Tibaldi was born in Puria di Valsolda ...

, a chalk "Glory" by Gioacchino Varlè, the ''Angels Carrying the Holy House of Loreto'' by Andrea Lillio and the large ''

Assumption Assumption, in Christianity, refers to the Assumption of Mary, a belief in the taking up of the Virgin Mary into heaven. Assumption may also refer to: Places * Assumption, Alberta, Canada * Assumption, Illinois, United States ** Assumption Town ...

'' altarpiece by

Lorenzo Lotto Lorenzo Lotto (c. 1480 – 1556/57) was an Italian Renaissance painter, draughtsman, and illustrator, traditionally placed in the Venetian school, though much of his career was spent in other north Italian cities. He painted mainly altarpie ...

References

External links

{{Coord, 43, 37, 17, N, 13, 30, 43, E, type:landmark_scale:1000, display=title 14th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in Italy Francesco Scale Gothic architecture in le Marche Francesco Ancona