Fossombrone Cathedral

Santi Aldebrando e Agostino in Cattedrale, or Sant'Aldebrando for short, is the Fossombrone Cathedral, that is, the main Roman Catholic church located in Piazza Mazzini at the end of Corso Garibaldi in the center of the town of Fossombrone, province of Pesaro and Urbino in the region of Marche, Italy. It is the Co-cathedral of the Diocese of Fano-Fossombrone-Cagli-Pergola Coordinates: 43°41′20″N 12°48′19.8″E / 43.68889°N 12.805500°E / 43.68889; 12.805500

History

The church locale was formerly the site of a Benedictine Abbey. From 1776 to 1784, the church was completely rebuilt in Neoclassical-style by the architect Cosimo Morelli. It has a tall central façade with monumental columns supporting a triangular tympanum. The interior was formulated in three naves with polychrome altars, made of marble and scagliola, designed by Nicola Vici. The altarpieces depict: the Madonna and child with Saints Joseph and Francis and a Madonna and Child with St Anne by Giovanni Francesco Guerrieri; as well as a Madonna and Child with Saints Anne and Aldebrandus by Claudio Ridolfi. The niches inside have bas-reliefs with images of the Virgin and Child, and Saints Aldebrandus, Peter, Paul, and Blaise. The organ was constructed in 1785 by Gaetano Callido, with a restoration in 1996-97.^[1]

In the first chapel on the left is a 14th-century fresco of the Madonna della Provvidenza by Guido Palmerucci. In the second chapel on the left is a ceramic depicting Santa Maria Goretti (1955) by Angelo Biancini, who also made the fourteen ceramic Via Crucis plaques along the nave.

Near the apse, opens the Chapel of the Madonna of the Rosary (cappella Passionei) with a polychrome marble altar and small canvases depicting the miracles of the Rosary painted in the 18th century. This chapel houses Guerrieri's canvas depicting the Virgin, Child and St Anne (1627). On the other side of the church, the Chapel of the Holy Sacrament was designed and completed in marble and scagliola by Eugenio Buffoni in the 19th century.

The main altarpiece depicts the Holy Trinity by an unknown 18th century painter. Beneath the altar, an urn has the relics of Aldebrandus, patron of the city. The sacristy has an sculpted ancona (1480) made from sandstone by the sculptor Domenico Rosselli.

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