Ancona Cathedral (Italian: Duomo di Ancona) is a church in Ancona, central Italy, dedicated to Judas Cyriacus. It is an example of mixed Romanesque-Byzantine and Gothic elements, and is located on the former site of the Greek city's acropolis, the Guasco hill which commands Ancona and its gulf.
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Excavations carried on in 1948 proved that an Italic temple, perhaps dedicated to Aphrodite, existed on the site as early as the 3rd century BC. Above it, in the 6th century CE a Palaeo-Christian church was built. This had a nave and three aisles with the entrance facing south-east (where is the current Chapel of the Crucifix); some still existing remains of it include a mosaic pavement and perimeter walls.
In 995–1015 a new church was built, which anyway kept the original walls. In 1017 the renovated basilica received the relics of St. Marcellinus of Ancona and St. Cyiriacus. Further enlargement works occurred between the end of the 12th and the early 13th centuries, with the addition of a transversal body, to obtain a Greek cross plan, and a entrance towards south-west, resulting in the church now facing the port and the new road entering the city. The transepts were at a higher level than the previous nave, and had apses. The church, previously named after St. Lawrence, was re-dedicated to St. Cyriacus martyr, the patron saint and alleged bishop of Ancona.
A first restoration was held in 1883. During World War I, on 24 May 1915, the basilica was damaged by a bombardment of the Austrian-Hungarian fleet. The damage was restored in 1920, but in World War II Anglo-American aerial bombings destroyed the right transept and the Crypt of Drops under it, along with the art treasures housed there. Once the transept was rebuilt, the church was officially reopened in 1951. Further damage was caused by an earthquake in 1972, followed by a new restoration and another official opening in 1977.
The edifice is built in white stone from Mount Conero, with apses protruding from the transept's ends and an elevated body, with a dome at the crossing, in correspondence of the nave. All the external surface feature a decoration with Lombard bands. 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. This is formed by a round arch supported by four columns. The anterior ones stand on lions in Verona red marble, while the rear ones, added later by Luigi Vanvitelli, are on a simple basement.
Under the arches are four relieves depicting symbols of the Evangelists. The portal is attributed to Giorgio da Como (c. 1228), and is in Romanesque-Gothic style, built in Conero white stone from Mount Conero 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 oculum with a Romanesque frame and, at the sides, two single mullioned windows.
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 at the church's crossing in the 13th century, and is attributed to Margaritone d'Arezzo (1270). Together with the church of Sant'Antonio at Padua and St. Mark's Basilica in Venice, it was one of the few contemporary example of domes built in churches, instead than in separate baptisteries. The copper cover was added in the 16th century.
The interior is on the Greek cross 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, with pendentives with Byzantine-style figures of praying angels. The dome is supported by cruciform cluster piers.
The side arms of the transept end with 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 wood vaults dating from the 15th century. At the beginning of the side left nave is the monument to a Fermo warrior from 1530.
The right transept is home to the Chapel of the Crucifix. Its transennas are formed by graffitoed tiles from a 1189 balaustrade. They depict saints, the Eternal Father and the Virgin on the left, and, on the right, figures of animals: two cranes on a pomegranate, an eagle, two peacocks on a tree and two gryphons. In the Crypt of the Drops below, rebuilt after the devastation of World War II, are remains of ancient edifices. The presbytery's arms houses, in the left aisles, the sepulchre of Blessed Girolamo Ginelli, executed in 1509 by Giovanni Dalmata.
The left transept is home the Madonna Chapel, with a lavishly decorated niche designed by Luigi Vanvitelli in 1739, which is the site of a venerate 17th century image of the Madonna. Under the chapel is a crypt with the remains of St. Cyriacus (in a marble case), St. Liberius and Marcellinus (in Sicilian jasper) and the ashes of Saint Palatia. The urna were designed and executed between 1757 e il 1760 together with a decoration of bronze festoons, by Gioacchino Varlè.