Tempio Malatestiano

Rimini's cathedral began as the Franciscan church of San Francesco and became Sigismondo Pandolfo Malatesta's Renaissance project. Leon Battista Alberti redesigned its exterior, while Agostino di Duccio carved the chapels and Giotto and Piero della Francesca contributed works inside. The unfinished upper façade preserves the project's abrupt halt.

Why it matters

The Tempio Malatestiano is an early Renaissance reinterpretation of a Christian church using classical forms. Alberti's marble façade draws on Roman triumphal architecture and local monuments such as the Arch of Augustus and the Ponte di Tiberio. Construction stopped around 1460–61, after Pope Pius II's conflict with Sigismondo, leaving the upper façade and planned dome unrealised.

What to notice

The central arch of the façade echoes the Arch of Augustus, and a Latin frieze bears Sigismondo's name and the date 1450. The side arcades recall Roman aqueducts and the nearby bridge. Inside, the single nave has exposed wooden trusses and no vaulting. Agostino di Duccio's sculpted chapels are arranged in facing pairs and filled with Malatesta emblems. Giotto's painted crucifix, dating to around 1300, survives from the earlier church. Piero della Francesca's 1451 fresco shows Sigismondo kneeling before Saint Sigismund; Vasari's 1548 canvas depicts Saint Francis receiving the stigmata.

Context and history

Sigismondo began the project in 1447 with two family chapels in the Franciscan church of San Francesco. The redesign grew into Alberti's plan for a monumental dynastic church, with Agostino di Duccio's sculptures and Matteo de' Pasti's decorative programme. After Sigismondo's fall, the Franciscans completed a roof but the original plan remained unfinished. The church took the name Tempio Malatestiano in the eighteenth century and became Rimini's cathedral in 1809. Bomb damage during the Second World War was followed by restoration and reconsecration in 1950.