Battistero di San Giovanni

Across Piazza Arringo from Ascoli Piceno's cathedral, the Baptistery of San Giovanni preserves its twelfth-century Romanesque form. Excavations for the Jubilee of 2000 revealed two circular baptismal basins beneath the floor, evidence of an earlier Christian building on a site of Roman sacred use.

Why it matters

The baptistery is one of Ascoli Piceno's most notable Romanesque buildings. Its archaeological layers include a Roman sacred area, an early medieval baptistery and the twelfth-century structure visible today. The two basins discovered beneath the floor record changes in baptismal practice over time.

What to notice

Large travertine blocks, many reused from Roman structures, form the square base. Above it rises an octagonal drum, or tiburio, with blind triple-arched windows, followed by a circular dome and small lantern. The structure has two doorways on the western and southern sides. The excavations revealed two circular basins: the larger belonged to an earlier baptistery, while the smaller is associated with the twelfth-century building. Traces of the earlier Roman sacred area are also visible. The square, octagon and circle have been interpreted in Christian symbolism as earthly life, baptism and heaven.

Context and history

A baptistery stood here by the early Middle Ages and was rebuilt in the second half of the twelfth century. Early baptism by immersion gave way to other forms of the rite as baptism increasingly involved infants. By the late fourteenth century, when aspersion replaced immersion, the original basin was sealed and a raised font installed. Preparations for the Jubilee of 2000 brought restoration work and excavation that exposed the two earlier basins.