Chiesa di San Domenico

Above Piazza del Plebiscito, Ancona's church of San Domenico combines an unfinished brick façade with a rich Baroque interior. The Dominicans established a church on this site in the thirteenth century; the present building was designed by Carlo Marchionni in the eighteenth.

Why it matters

The current church was begun in 1759 and consecrated in August 1788. Its design by the Roman architect Carlo Marchionni is a major expression of late Baroque architecture in the Marche. The interior also brings together important works of painting and sculpture, including Guercino's Annunciation and a copy of Titian's Crucifixion.

What to notice

The broad nave is covered by a barrel vault, with three chapels on each side. Gioacchino Varlè made the stucco statues and medallions of Dominican saints, as well as the Madonna del Rosario group, the angels above the organs and the figure of Faith on the high altar.

Guercino's Annunciation of 1662 is at the first altar on the left. The apse contains a copy of Titian's Crucifixion of 1558; the original is conserved in Ancona's Pinacoteca Civica. The lower order of the façade is articulated with columns and pilasters, while the upper section remains in bare brick.

Context and history

To make room for the new church, the earlier San Domenico and the churches of San Egidio and Santa Maria Incoronata were demolished. Work began in 1759, continued through the 1760s and 1770s, and the church was consecrated in 1788. Marchionni may also have had a role in arranging the adjoining square, though that attribution is not certain.

The building reopened for worship in 1816 after restoration. It was heavily damaged by bombing in 1943 and by the 1972 earthquake; restoration campaigns in the 1980s and 1990s repaired the interior.