Back Chiese Museo in provincia di Macerata

Precious masterpieces of Christian architecture
The itinerary of the Museum-Churches of the Province of Macerata: from the Romanesque Church of San Martino Vescovo, to the beauties of Sarnano with the ducentesca church of Santa Maria dell'Assunta, and then the monuments, shrines and masterpieces scattered between Esanatoglia, Visso, Camerino , Monte San Giusto, Belforte del Chienti and Caldarola.

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Level of difficulty: media
Target: Leisure

The stages of the itinerary

  • Monte San Giusto - Church of Santa Maria della Pietà in Telusiano
    Via Tolomei , 5 Monte San Giusto (MC)
    0733.53162 0733.839006-7
    The stage includes the following destinations: Chiesa di S. Maria della Pietà in Telusiano

    he church was restored between 1513 and 1529 and commissioned by Nicolò Bonafede from Monte San Giusto (1464-1534), an important figure of the Papal court and Bishop of Chiusi, to be his family's mausoleum. The church hosts the famous altarpiece representing the Crucifixion by Lorenzo Lotto. The altarpiece, commissioned by the bishop of Chiusi, is divided into three levels showing Jesus Christ and two thieves and the desperation of Our Lady and the Holy Women. On the left, there is Niccolò Bonafede who is taking part to the prayer. The altarpiece is one the most impressive Renaissance artworks thanks to its bright colours, and the contrast between the light and the dark sky. The church also hosts late-16th frescoes by Durante Nobili from Caldarola, who was a pupil of Lorenzo Lotto and a version of Our Lady of Trapani by Nino Pisano.

  • Sarnano - St. Mary of the Assumption Church
    Piazza Alta , Sarnano (MC)
    0733.658080 Don. Marcello Squa
    The stage includes the following destinations: Chiesa di S. Maria Assunta

    In the 13th-century church dedicated to St. Mary of the Assumption, there is the chapel painted by Lorenzo d’Alessandro, which represents the Madonna and Child with the Angels in the middle, the Saints Giovanni, Martino, Sebastiano and Rocco on either side, and Jesus Christ with Virgin Mary and St. Michael the Archangel on the tympanum. 
    There is also the possibility to admire the wooden banner representing Annunciation and Crucifixion by Girolamo di Giovanni.

  • Caldarola - Palazzo Pallotta, Stanza del Paradiso (Paradise Room)
    Piazza Vittorio Emanuele II, 13 , Caldarola (MC)
    0733.903706
    The stage includes the following destinations: Palazzo Pallotta, Stanza del Paradiso
    Pallotta Palace, now the Town Hall, was built by Cardinal Evangelista Pallotta towards the end of '500. Thanks to it, the city of Caldarola took on that unmistakable late Renaissance urban plan of Roman inspiration that it is still possible to admire today.
    The building is an authentic jewel of mannerism architecture in the Marche Region, it recently returned to its former glory thanks to a long restoration; within it are preserved some paintings of the painter and sculptor Simone de Magistris, who was born in Caldarola.
    Of extraordinary value is the magnificent Paradise Room, a small artistic jewel and reserved place for the cardinal's meditation, decorated with evocative landscape scenes with exotic flora and fauna representations, hunting scenes animated by rearing horses, greyhounds, birds, hunters and framed by festoons and cupids with the heraldic symbols of the family.
    A decoration somewhere between fantasy and reality where the chromatic exuberance and playful vivacity of the scenes enliven a lyrical atmosphere and imbued with seventeenth-century charm.

  • Belforte del Chienti - St. Eustace Church
    Piazza Umberto , I Belforte del Chienti (MC)
    0733.951007
    The stage includes the following destinations: Polittico di Giovanni Boccati nella Chiesa di S. Eustachio
    The church was built in 1218, but its current structure derives from further restorations after the terrible earthquake in 1741. The church dates back to the 13th century, but its current structure derives from further restorations after the terrible earthquake in 1741. Moreover, it is not its external shape to make it worth a visit, but the important treasures held inside: the Polyptych by Giovannni Boccati in 1468. The late-gothic polyptych (4,83 x 3,25 m) is surrounded by a refined gold wood frame and it consists of five panels representing the Madonna on the throne and her child, and the Crucifixion. In addition, there are eighteen mirrors and five medallions; one of them shows God near the Angels and four religious characters of the Latin Church: Saint Ambrogio, Girolamo, Agostino and Gregorio Magno.
  • Esanatoglia - Town Hall
    P.zza Giacomo Leopardi , 1 Esanatoglia (MC)
    0737.889132
    The stage includes the following destinations: Palazzo comunale
    The Town Hall was built in the fourteenth century. as a fortified residence of the da Varano, powerful family of the Duchy of Spoleto who was head of Camerino government and its territories. During the restoration work carried out after the 1997 earthquake was rediscovered a special and precious cycle of frescoes depicting a parade of horsemen, probably to be identified with some members of the House of da Varano, and an unknown artist fresco perhaps realized at the end of '400 , under the rule of Julius Caesar.
  • Camerino - Giovan Battista Tiepolo - Apparizione della Madonna a San Filippo Neri (Apparition of Our Lady to San FIlippo Neri)
    The Apparition of the Virgin and Child to San Filippo Neri is an autograph painting signed by Giambattista Tiepolo, an oil on canvas (size: cm. 350 x 182) realized for the second chapel, dedicated to San Filippo Neri, in the homonymous Church of Camerino. The painting was published in the pages of the magazine AV in 1964 by Zampetti, but indeed there are no documents with news on the altarpiece, neither on the chapel in which it is located, surrounded by a large marble frame. We certainly know that only in 1735 the roof of the Church was finished and the interior decorations began. Following a careful analysis of the style we can chronologically place the work in the period of the altarpiece of Our Lady with Saints Catherine, Rosa witn Child and Agnese, ie after the frescoes of Santa Maria dei Gesuati in Venice, of which there are records (1737 -39), a style where the chromatic beauty and calm compositional structure, without any disruption of the boundary, harmoniously excel. These assumptions are also validated by the delicate and gentle figure of the Virgin Mary which recalls the feminine images of the paintings of the Carmini in Venice.
  • Visso - Sanctuary of Macereto
    S. P. di Macereto , Visso (MC)
    0737 9264 ; 339 2027814
    The stage includes the following destinations: Santuario di Santa Maria di Macereto

    The Sanctuary of Macereto is on the homonymous plateau of Macereto, near Visso, in the Sibillini mountains, and it’s an extraordinary example of Renaissance architecture in the Marche. People say that in the past miracles took place here so it became a place of widespread popular devotion.

    It was built in 1529 by Giovan Battista da Lugano , although the original plan was most probably by Bramante, and it replaced the previous church erected in the year 1359. The construction was suspended when Lugano died and started again in 1553 under the guidance of Filippo Salvi da Bissone and finished in 1556.

    The magnificent Sanctuary, covered in travertine, has an octagonal plan with the external structures on three sides in correspondence to the three entrances to the church.

    The inner church plan is in the form of a Greek cross with four wings, each of them ending in four apses with niches. In the middle of the temple stands the ancient chapel that was covered in stone in 1585-1590.

    In the apse of the main altar there’s a very nice chapel with stucco decorations and statues, and most notably, some artworks by Simone de Magistris painted from 1580-1582: the “Birth of Christ”, “The Worship of the Magi”, “The descent of the Holy Spirit”, the “Circumcision”, la “Nativity of the Virgin Mary”, and the “Flight to Egypt”.

    The Sanctuary is currently damaged due to earthquake 2016. Some parts of the monument have been fenced.