Church of Saint Francis

The church is located in the heart of the historic town centre, where still today you can see examples of ‘doors of the dead’ – doors that used to be opened to carry the deceased out and were then walled up immediately afterwards. The church was founded between 1255 and 1263 probably by direct disciples of Saint Francis of Assisi. The asymmetrical façade has a splendid Gothic sandstone portal dating from the 14th century. The dome and bell tower were only rebuilt in the early 20th century after suffering earthquake damage. The Latin cross interior was transformed in the 17th and 18th centuries in the academic neoclassical style adopted by numerous religious orders to modify older Romanesque-Gothic churches.

The Conventual Franciscans left in the Napoleonic period and were replaced in 1819 by the Augustinians, who brought their own traditional art works.

Since 1965, the 18th-century choir above the entrance has housed a 17th-century organ removed from the Basilica of Saint Peter in the Vatican which had been donated to Pope Leo XIII by the Germans.

Over the font on the right are the remains of a 14th-century fresco depicting the Face of the Madonna.

The first altar on the left was commissioned by Pergola’s Guild of Carpenters and Masons. It houses a painting of the Rest on the Flight into Egypt by Giovanni Antonio Scaramuccia of Perugia (1580-1650).

The niche of the second altar on the left contains a wooden statue of Saint Nicholas of Tolentino, dated 1685. This was decorated by Giovanni Francesco Ferri, grandfather of the homonymous Pergolese painter who flourished in the eighteenth century.

The third altar on the left houses a devotional statue of the Madonna of Sorrows.

Still on the left, the fourth altar preserves a painting of the Madonna of the Belt and Augustinian Saints attributed to Giovanni Anastasi of Senigallia (1623-1704).

The wooden altar in the left transept houses a work representing the Madonna of the Holy Belt and Franciscan Saints attributed to Antonio Viviani called Il Sordo from Urbino (1560-1620). On the right is Saint Anthony of Padua painted by Giovanni Francesco Ferri (1701-1775). On the left wall hangs a canvas depicting Saint Francis Receiving the Stigmata, a copy of a Baroque original now on display in Galleria Nazionale delle Marche (the National Gallery of the Marche) in Urbino. On the right wall hangs a painting by Domenico Corvi of Viterbo (1721-1803), representing Saint John the Evangelist on the island of Patmos.

The presbytery contains a main altar in marble commissioned by the noble Bernardino Antonelli in 1621. This houses a polychrome wooden statue of the Immaculate Conception, dated 1692, commissioned by Arsenio Guazzugli, sculpted by Jacopo Piazzetta (1640-1705), father of the well-known Venetian painter Giambattista Piazzetta (1683-1754), and decorated by Giovanni Francesco Ferri Senior with the help of Terenzio Terenzi of Orciano. The niche is covered by a painting on stretched canvas of the Immaculate Conception by Giovanni Francesco Ferri (1705-1775). To either side of the altar are two stucco medallions enclosing paintings of the Holy Family and the Crucifixion by Nazareno Angeletti, completed in 1970. On the left wall of the presbytery is a precious altarpiece of the Deposition and Resurrection of Christ, attributed to Giovanni Battista Ragazzini of Ravenna (circa 1520-1591).

The right transept is enriched by a large altar made of precious marble that preserves a painting of the Annunciation by the Bolognese painter Lavinia Fontana (1552-1614). Under the altar table is an 18th-century wooden statue of the Dead Christ which is carried in procession every year on the evening of Good Friday through the streets of the town. On the left of the altar is a canvas depicting the Angels with the Symbols of the Passion attributed to Giovanni Francesco Ferri (1701-1775).

In the fourth altar on the right is a series of valuable gilt wood reliquaries.

The third altar on the right, where a modern statue of Saint Rita now stands, was once dedicated to Saint Anthony of Padua.

On the second altar on the right is a painting of the Adoration of the Shepherds by an anonymous 17th-century artist.

The first altar on the right houses a 17th-century painting of the Glory of the Madonna and Saints by an artist of the Marche School.

Also of interest are the depictions of the Passion and Death of Christ in fourteen Stations of the Cross by the Pergolese artist Pietro Ugolini (1710-1780 circa) positioned at several points around the church.

The church of Saint Francis once housed a unique masterpiece of Italian art, the altarpiece of the Immaculate Conception by Carlo Crivelli (1430 circa -1495 circa) dated 1492. This work is now conserved in the National Gallery in London.