Descrizione
The monumental complex has a Latin cross plan, comprising a single imposing nave with a barrel vault adorned with six side altars, an octagonal dome with a lantern surmounting the transept, an apse with a central altar and a wooden choir, flanked by two side chapels, one on each arm of the transept, each of which culminates in an altar on either side. The gabled façade, built of Umbrian terracotta and featuring a bell tower on the left, remains unfinished compared to the imposing design by the architect Anton Francesco Berardi da Cagli, which envisaged two symmetrical bell towers.
The spacious interior features several notable works from the Umbrian-Marche school. Among these are the 17th-century altarpieces depicting the Virgin, St Jerome and other saints, an Annunciation and a Nativity of the Virgin, all three attributed to the painters of Cantiano origin, Francesco and Flaminio Allegrini, who were active in the second half of the 17th century, including in Rome as painters to the Papal Court.
In the left arm of the transept there is an altarpiece depicting Saint Charles Borromeo, attributed to the Venetian painter Claudio Ridolfi (1570–1644). Opposite, in the right-hand transept, is a ‘Last Supper’ by Ventura Mazza da Cantiano, a pupil of Barocci (17th century). Also attributed to Claudio Ridolfi is the painting depicting the ‘Transfer of the Holy House of Loreto’ and Saint Andrew. On the altar of the Fabi Chapel stands a ‘Virgin and Child’, known as the ‘Madonna of Mercy’, created by Gaetano Lapis di Cagli (1706–1773) during the first half of the 18th century. The artistic gem of the entire church, however, is the exquisite 15th-century tondo depicting the Madonna known as ‘del Cardellino’. This exquisite Renaissance image of the Virgin and Child with the infant Saint John is set within a splendid wooden frame, gilded with motifs of fruit and foliage. Although for centuries attributed by art historians to Eusebio di Giacomo, known as Eusebio di San Giorgio (1465–1539), it is in fact the work of his master, Pietro Vannucci, known as Perugino (1450–1524), as a plaque inside the church attests.
Also noteworthy are a late 16th-century wooden crucifix, the splendid black walnut choir with carved stalls dated 1721, the work of local craftsmen, and the fine organ – situated in the gallery above the central door — the work of Giuseppe Greppi of Rimini, dated 1672, restored and extended by Andrea Feligiotti of Urbania in 1805 (the instrument was restored to the highest standards by Cav. Alfredo Piccinelli in 1997).
On the evening of 29 October 1980, the sudden collapse of a truss in the central nave forced the closure of the church. After five years of restoration work, carried out with tireless determination by the then archpriest, Monsignor Fausto Panfili, on Christmas Eve 1985 the Collegiate Church was reopened for worship with a solemn Mass presided over by the Bishop of Gubbio, Ennio Antonelli.
A number of rearrangements to the furnishings of the high altar and the chancel, carried out between the end of the first and the beginning of the second decade of the 21st century by the archpriest, Don Claudio Crescimanno, restored the Collegiate Church to its former liturgical splendour.
Subsequent decisions, initiated by the current parish priest, have restored the previous layout of the liturgical furnishings – as originally conceived following the Second Vatican Council – since, although it may be more in keeping with the current ordinary practice of the Roman Rite, it appears objectively less attentive to and respectful of the historical, artistic, theological and liturgical characteristics with which the main church of the provincial capital was conceived and enriched over the centuries.
