San Francesco alle Scale is a church in

Ancona Ancona (, also , ) is a city and a seaport in the Marche region in central Italy, with a population of around 101,997 . Ancona is the capital of the province of Ancona and of the region. The city is located northeast of Rome, on the Adriatic S ...

, central

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

History

Sited at the top of a staircase leading to the eponymous square, the church was founded in 1323 by the

Franciscan The Franciscans are a group of related Mendicant orders, mendicant Christianity, Christian Catholic religious order, religious orders within the Catholic Church. Founded in 1209 by Italian Catholic friar Francis of Assisi, these orders include t ...

s, and was originally dedicated to Santa Maria Maggiore. It obtained the current denomination in the mid-15th century. In 1454, the Dalmatian master

Giorgio da Sebenico Giorgio da Sebenico () or Giorgio Orsini or Juraj Dalmatinac (; c. 1410 – 10 October 1473) was a Venetian sculptor and architect from Dalmatia, who worked mainly in Sebenico (now Šibenik, Croatia), and in the city of Ancona, then a maritime ...

executed the portal, inspired to the late Gothic one of the Porta della Carta in the

Ducal Palace Several palaces are named Ducal Palace (Italian: ''Palazzo Ducale'' ) because it was the seat or residence of a duke. Notable palaces with the name include: France *Palace of the Dukes of Burgundy, Dijon *Palace of the Dukes of Lorraine, Nancy *Pa ...

Venice Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 ...

. In the 18th century the church was raised and enlarged by design of architect Francesco Maria Ciaraffoni, who also built the two annexed monastery and the two cloisters. After the Napoleonic occupation the complex was used as a hospital and, from the 1920s, as a Civic Museum. The church was restored and reopened in 1953. The 18th-century bell tower, which had been destroyed by an Allied bombardment in 1944, was rebuilt at the same time.

Description

The main feature of the façade is the portal, designed by

with an ornate frame featuring twenty heads and, at the sides, two tall pilasters housing four niches with statues of saints. Above the portal is a Gothic

lunette A lunette (French ''lunette'', "little moon") is a half-moon shaped architectural space, variously filled with sculpture, painted, glazed, filled with recessed masonry, or void. A lunette may also be segmental, and the arch may be an arc take ...

with a bas-relief of ''St. Francis receiving the Stigmata'' and, above it, a shell supporting a hexagonal baldachin. The portal leads to a staircase which was rebuilt in the 1920s. The interior has a single nave and is in 18th-century style. It houses a ''Baptism of Christ'' by

Pellegrino Tibaldi Pellegrino Tibaldi (Valsolda, 1527–Milan, 1596), also known as Pellegrino di Tibaldo de Pellegrini, was an Italian mannerism, mannerist architect, sculpture, sculptor, and mural Painting, painter. Biography Tibaldi was born in Puria di Valsol ...

, a chalk "Glory" by Gioacchino Varlè, the ''Angels Carrying the Holy House of Loreto'' by

Andrea Lillio Andrea Lilio (1555 - 1642) was an Italian painter born in Ancona, hence he also is known as ''L'Anconitano''. He painted mainly in his native city, as well as in Rome, where he was active from the beginning of the 17th century until around 1640 ...

and the large ''

Assumption Assumption, in Christianity, refers to the Assumption of Mary, a belief in the taking up of the Virgin Mary into heaven. Assumption may also refer to: Places * Assumption, Alberta, Canada * Assumption, Illinois, United States ** Assumption Town ...

'' altarpiece by

Lorenzo Lotto Lorenzo Lotto (c. 1480 – 1556/57) was an Italian Painting, painter, draughtsman, and illustrator, traditionally placed in the Venetian school (art), Venetian school, though much of his career was spent in other north Italian cities. He pain ...

References

External links

{{Coord, 43, 37, 17, N, 13, 30, 43, E, type:landmark_scale:1000, display=title 14th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in Italy Francesco Scale Gothic architecture in le Marche Francesco Ancona