Cattedrale di San Giovanni Battista

Cesena's Cathedral of St John the Baptist combines a restrained Romanesque façade with a Gothic interior. The present church began under Galeotto I Malatesta in the late fourteenth century and remains the cathedral of the Diocese of Cesena-Sarsina.

Why it matters

The cathedral brings together Cesena's religious history and several centuries of artistic work. Its chapels and furnishings include the Madonna del Popolo chapel, a major focus of local devotion, and the Corpus Domini altar carved by G. B. Bregno.

What to notice

The exterior's sober façade contrasts with the vertical forms of the interior. The bell tower, credited to Maso di Pietro and dated to 1456, belongs to a later phase of the building's development. In the Madonna del Popolo chapel, Corrado Giaquinto painted the dome's Genealogia della Vergine in 1750–51; the chapel itself was built in 1746–48. The Corpus Domini altar was carved by G. B. Bregno between 1494 and 1505. A fifteenth-century wooden crucifix and the organ, made in 1962 using parts of an 1898 instrument, add to the cathedral's artistic and musical history.

Context and history

Work on the present church began in 1378 at the initiative of Galeotto I Malatesta. The design is attributed by the municipality to an architect named Underwalden, active between the late fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries. The building developed over a long period, acquiring its Gothic interior while retaining the Romanesque character of its façade. An earlier cathedral is thought to have stood near today's Porta Montanara, though its exact history is less certain. The cathedral's two principal devotions honour St John the Baptist and the Madonna del Popolo.