San Donato is a

Baroque The Baroque ( , , ) is a Western Style (visual arts), style of Baroque architecture, architecture, Baroque music, music, Baroque dance, dance, Baroque painting, painting, Baroque sculpture, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished from ...

-style,

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 ...

church located in the town of

Montefano Montefano is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Province of Macerata in the Italian region Marche, located about southwest of Ancona and about north of Macerata. Montefano borders the following municipalities: Appignano, Filottrano, Montecassia ...

, province of Macerata, 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.

History

A church at the site is documented since 1308. The present brick

collegiate church In Christianity, a collegiate church is a church where the daily office of worship is maintained by a college of canons, a non-monastic or "secular" community of clergy, organised as a self-governing corporate body, headed by a dignitary bearing ...

dates to 1768, when it was completed in a baroque style. The brick façade is a subdued and traditional two story church front with pilasters. The lateral flanks slightly recede. The interiors have highly decorated walls and ceilings. The nave is flanked by pilasters with gilded corinthian capitals. The walls and pilasters are decorated with floral arabesque designs; and the friezes with festoons. The church contains the tombs of prominent ecclesiastics and aristocrats of the region, as well as members of the later-suppressed Confraternity of San Benvenuto. The church has four chapels. The first chapel on the left has a canvas depicting an ''Annunciation'' from the second half of the 16th century. Above the wooden choir stalls in the apse is a large canvas depicting the ''Assumption of the Virgin with the Saints Donato and Louis Gonzaga'' (1708) by Philippus de' Comitibus. St

Donatus of Arezzo Saint Donatus of Arezzo () is the patron saint of Arezzo, and considered a bishop of the city. A ''Passio'' of Donatus' life was written by a bishop of Arezzo, Severinus; it is of questionable historicity. He calls Donatus a martyr, though Dona ...

is the town patron. On the altar is a wooden crucifix of the 16th-century and a reliquary urn. In the chapel of the SS Sacramento (holiest sacrament) is displayed a sarcophagus with the relics of ''St Seberio Martyr''. The organ built in 1722 by Giuseppe Fedeli is found in a loft.Tourism website of Valle del Pensare
the project: ''Lungo il Corso del Potenza'' is sponsored by 10 towns of the Province of Macerata.

References

14th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in Italy 18th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in Italy Roman Catholic churches completed in 1768 Baroque architecture in Marche

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