Santa Maria della Piazza is a church in

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

, central

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

. The church, a fine example of

Romanesque architecture Romanesque architecture is an architectural style of medieval Europe that was predominant in the 11th and 12th centuries. The style eventually developed into the Gothic style with the shape of the arches providing a simple distinction: the Ro ...

in the city, was erected between the 11th and the 12th centuries. Before its construction, the site was home to two small Palaeo-Christian churches, dating to the 6th and 7th centuries. Part of the current church's pavement is in glass to allow visibility to some of the remains of the latter. The building has a rectangular plan, with a

nave The nave () is the central part of a church, stretching from the (normally western) main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-type ...

and two aisles, and a raised

apse In architecture, an apse (: apses; from Latin , 'arch, vault'; from Ancient Greek , , 'arch'; sometimes written apsis; : apsides) is a semicircular recess covered with a hemispherical Vault (architecture), vault or semi-dome, also known as an ' ...

. The lower part of the façade has numerous blind arches and, in the middle, a statue of the Virgin Mary. At the top, dating to the reconstruction (together with the brickwork part of the annexed

bell tower 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 to ...

) after the 1690 earthquake, is a rectangular window. The master of the façade (1210) was one Master Filippo (as testified by an inscription in the

lunette A lunette (French ''lunette'', 'little moon') is a crescent- or half-moon–shaped or semi-circular architectural space or feature, variously filled with sculpture, painted, glazed, filled with recessed masonry, or void. A lunette may also be ...

), while the arched portal is attributed to one Master Leonardo. Master Filippo was also responsible of the reconstruction of the Romanesque cathedral of San Leopardo and of Santa Tecla at

Osimo Osimo is a town and ''comune'' of the Marche region of Italy, in the province of Ancona. The municipality covers a hilly area located approximately south of the port city of Ancona and the Adriatic Sea. History The oldest archaeological evide ...

. In the subterraneans are remains from several Palaeo-Christian churches, including some mosaics. The oldest ones belonged to an older building, perhaps destroyed during the

Gothic Wars (6th century) The Gothic Wars were a long series of conflicts between the Goths and the Roman Empire between the years 249 and 554. The main wars are detailed below. History Crisis of the Third Century During the Crisis of the Third Century, Goths under ...

, and above which the newer and less refined ones were later added. Other remains include a pit, some traces of the ancient Greek Ancona's walls and some frescoes. The church was once home to

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

's '' Altarpiece of the Halberd'', now in Ancona's Municipal Pinacoteca.

Sources

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Santa Maria Della Piazza Maria della Piazza Romanesque architecture in le Marche 12th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in Italy