Urbania Cathedral () is a Neoclassical

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 ...

, dedicated to

Saint Christopher Saint Christopher (, , ; ) is venerated by several Christian denominations. According to these traditions, he was a martyr killed in the reign of the 3rd-century Roman Empire, Roman emperor Decius (), or alternatively under the emperor Maximin ...

, in

Urbania Urbania is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Province of Pesaro e Urbino in the Italian region of Marche, located about west of Ancona and about southwest of Pesaro, next to the river Metauro. Urbania borders the following municipalities: ...

, in the

Province of Pesaro and Urbino The province of Pesaro and Urbino (, ) is a province in the Marche region of Italy. Its capital is the city of Pesaro. It also borders the state of San Marino. The province is surrounded by San Marino and Emilia Romagna in the north, Umbria and ...

in the region of

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, ...

, Italy. It was the seat of the Bishops of Urbania e Sant'Angelo in Vado from the creation of the diocese in 1636. Since 1986 it has been a co-cathedral in the

Archdiocese of Urbino-Urbania-Sant'Angelo in Vado In church governance, a diocese or bishopric is the ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop. History In the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided provinces were administratively associated ...

History

The present church was built on the site of a prior Paleochristian structure, the 9th-century church of San Cristoforo. Only the Romanesque bell tower and other traces remain. It was restructured by

Cardinal Bessarion Bessarion (; 2 January 1403 – 18 November 1472) was a Byzantine Greek Renaissance humanist, theologian, Catholic cardinal and one of the famed Greek scholars who contributed to the revival of letters in the 15th century. He was educated ...

, abbot of Casteldurante, who in 1472 brought to it the

reliquary A reliquary (also referred to as a ''shrine'', ''Chasse (casket), chasse'', or ''phylactery'') is a container for relics. A portable reliquary, or the room in which one is stored, may also be called a ''feretory''. Relics may be the purported ...

of the shoulder bone of Saint Christopher in an urn by Pollaiolo. The church was rebuilt in the mid-1700s by the architect Giuseppe Tosi. The façade (1870) is by Giuseppe Tacchi and the new bell tower (1958) by the engineer Stefanucci. The interior has a crucifix (1320) by

Pietro da Rimini Pietro da Rimini (active 1315-1335) was an early 14th-century Italian painter. Biography Pietro was born in Rimini and was a contemporary of the painters Giovanni and Giuliano da Rimini. He worked mainly in member and the Marche. Influenced by ...

. On the left wall of the apse is a 16th-century canvas of the ''Pentecost'' by the

Mannerist Mannerism is a style in European art that emerged in the later years of the Italian High Renaissance around 1520, spreading by about 1530 and lasting until about the end of the 16th century in Italy, when the Baroque style largely replaced it ...

painter Giustino Episcopi. In the church there are also works by

Giorgio Picchi Giorgio Picchi il Giovane (active 1586-1599) was an Italian painter active in Rome, Cremona, Rimini, Urbino, and Urbania. He was either a pupil or follower of Federico Barocci. Born in Castel Durante, present-day Urbania, he trained with his fath ...

(''Saint Ubaldo'' and the ''Birth of John the Baptist'', of the late 16th century) and other Baroque artists. The chapel of San Cristoforo houses the statue of its patron saint (1768).Urbania Column
description of churches.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Urbania Cathedral Roman Catholic churches in Urbania Roman Catholic cathedrals in Italy Cathedrals in the Marche Neoclassical architecture in le Marche Buildings and structures in Urbania 18th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in Italy Neoclassical church buildings in Italy