Chiesa di San Paterniano

The Basilica of San Paterniano in Fano is dedicated to the city's first bishop and principal patron. Built within the town in the sixteenth century, it combines a Renaissance plan with a marble shrine for the saint's relics, paintings by local and regional artists, and an organ by Gaetano Callido.

Why it matters

The basilica replaced the medieval shrine of San Paterniano outside the walls. Work began after 1547 with the approval of Pope Paul III, and Bishop Vincenzo Negusanti of Arbe consecrated the church on 17 April 1558. The saint's relics had been transferred from the old church in 1551. The new basilica made the cult of Fano's patron part of the city's religious centre.

What to notice

The plain brick façade gives way to a Latin-cross interior with three aisles, barrel vaults and a dome over the crossing. The stone portal of 1573 was made by a Venetian sculptor. Recent research attributes the church's design to the Venetian Stefano Bambagiani, replacing the older attribution to Jacopo Sansovino. In the chapel of San Paterniano, the relics rest beneath a marble urn crowned by the effigy of the bishop. The altars include an image of San Paterniano in Glory over Fano attributed to Alessandro Tiarini, paintings by Sebastiano Ceccarini and three works by Carlo Bononi. Giusto Cespi's painting is a copy after Guercino's Marriage of the Virgin. Above the entrance is a 1775 organ by Gaetano Callido.

Context and history

The basilica belonged to the Canons Regular of the Lateran until 1860, when suppression turned the complex into barracks. Capuchin friars returned in 1922 and remain its custodians. Bombing during the Second World War destroyed the upper sections of the bell tower, which was later rebuilt. The convent cloister preserves a wellhead signed and dated 1557. The translation of the relics in 1551 and the consecration in 1558 marked the revival of the saint's cult in the new church.