Cesena Cathedral ( it, Duomo di Cesena, ''Cattedrale di San Giovanni Battista'') is a

Roman Catholic Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...

cathedral A cathedral is a church that contains the '' cathedra'' () of a bishop, thus serving as the central church of a diocese, conference, or episcopate. Churches with the function of "cathedral" are usually specific to those Christian denomination ...

dedicated to

Saint John the Baptist John the Baptist or , , or , ;Wetterau, Bruce. ''World history''. New York: Henry Holt and Company. 1994. syc, ܝܘܿܚܲܢܵܢ ܡܲܥܡܕ݂ܵܢܵܐ, Yoḥanān Maʿmḏānā; he, יוחנן המטביל, Yohanān HaMatbil; la, Ioannes Bapti ...

in the city of

Cesena Cesena (; rgn, Cisêna) is a city and ''comune'' in the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy, served by Autostrada A14, and located near the Apennine Mountains, about from the Adriatic Sea. The total population is 97,137. History Cesena was o ...

, Italy. It has been the episcopal seat of the present Diocese of Cesena-Sarsina since 1986, and was previously that of the Diocese of Cesena. The building of the cathedral, to replace an older one, was authorised by a papal bull of

Pope Urban VI Pope Urban VI ( la, Urbanus VI; it, Urbano VI; c. 1318 – 15 October 1389), born Bartolomeo Prignano (), was head of the Catholic Church from 8 April 1378 to his death in October 1389. He was the most recent pope to be elected from outside the ...

in 1378. The works started in 1385 and were paid for by the generosity of

Andrea Malatesta Andrea Malatesta (30 November 1373 – 20 September 1416
) was an

Romanesque-

Gothic Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...

style, is attributed to the architect Undervaldo (probably

Swiss Swiss may refer to: * the adjectival form of Switzerland * Swiss people Places * Swiss, Missouri * Swiss, North Carolina *Swiss, West Virginia * Swiss, Wisconsin Other uses *Swiss-system tournament, in various games and sports *Swiss Internation ...

). 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 tower ...

(bell tower) was built between 1443 and 1457 to designs by the Maso di Pietro and funded by Bishop Antonio Malatesta da Fossombrone (bishop of Cesena from 1435 to 1475). Paolo Monti - Servizio fotografico (Cesena, 1972) - BEIC 6347094

Paolo Monti - Servizio fotografico (Cesena, 1972) - BEIC 6347094

The same Bishop Malatesta was responsible for the building of the Bishop's Palace adjoining the cathedral, which was completed by his successor Giovanni Venturelli (1475–1486). After the radical rebuilding of the 1960s the only surviving original part of the structure is what remains of the door on the eastern side. Also dating from the

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history marking the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and covering the 15th and 16th centuries, characterized by an effort to revive and surpass ideas ...

period is the Chapel of Saint Tobias next to the cathedral, now in use as the cathedral museum. However, the old hospital of the same name which gave assistance to pilgrims no longer exists. The façade of the cathedral was completed only at the end of the 15th century with works attributed to the Venetian architect Mauro Coducci (1440–1504). The mortal remains of Saint Maurus of Cesena (d. 946) are preserved here, in the Altar of Saint John, one of the greatest sculptures of Cesena produced between 1494 and 1505 by the Lombard sculptor Giovanni Battista Bregno da Osteno. Inside the cathedral a small painting on a copper plate by the

Mannerist Mannerism, which may also be known as Late Renaissance, 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, ...

Livio Agresti Livio Agresti (1508–1580), also called Ritius or Ricciutello, was an Italian painter of the late Renaissance or Mannerist period, active both in his native city of Forlì and in Rome, where he died. He was one of the members of the "Forlì paint ...

depicting Saint John has been returned. In the ''Cappella della Madonna del Popolo'' ("Chapel of the Madonna of the People") are frescoes by

Corrado Giaquinto Corrado Giaquinto (8 February 1703 – 18 April 1766) was an Italian Rococo painter. Early training and move to Rome He was born in Molfetta. As a boy he apprenticed with a modest local painter Saverio Porta, (c1667–1725), escaping the rel ...

dating from 1750, and was personally crowned by the

Pope Pius VI Pope Pius VI ( it, Pio VI; born Count Giovanni Angelo Braschi, 25 December 171729 August 1799) was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 15 February 1775 to his death in August 1799. Pius VI condemned the French Revoluti ...

on 3 June 1782.

External links

Website of the Comune di Cesena: Duomo
{{Authority control Roman Catholic cathedrals in Italy Roman Catholic churches in Cesena 14th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in Italy Roman Catholic churches completed in 1405 Cathedrals in Emilia-Romagna