Duomo di Jesi

Jesi's cathedral is dedicated to San Settimio, the city's first bishop and patron. Its single luminous nave and broad dome date to the eighteenth-century rebuilding, while medieval stone lions, a Roman altar stone and the baptismal font linked to composer Giovanni Battista Pergolesi preserve earlier layers of the church's history.

Why it matters

The cathedral stands on Piazza Federico II, one of Jesi's most historic squares. A first cathedral stood here, probably on the site of a Roman temple. A thirteenth-century rebuilding left two carved Verona-stone lions, once part of the entrance porch. In 1741, architect Filippo Barigioni designed a complete rebuilding that gave the church its present neoclassical interior and hemispherical dome.

What to notice

The façade was completed in 1889, more than a century after the rebuilding began. Inside, the two medieval lions support holy-water stoups; they survive from the porch of the earlier Romanesque-Gothic cathedral. In the presbytery is a Roman marble cippus converted into a Christian altar in 1082 and carved with symbols of the Evangelists. The eighteenth-century side chapels were funded by Jesi's noble families. A fifteenth-century baptismal font is associated with the baptism of Pergolesi on 4 January 1710.

Context and history

The site's religious history includes a probable Roman temple, the first cathedral and a Romanesque-Gothic church rebuilt in the first half of the thirteenth century. The present single-nave church was constructed to Barigioni's design from 1741, with the façade completed in 1889. It remains the cathedral of the Diocese of Jesi, beside the bishop's palace on Piazza Federico II.