The outside of this church which was first mentioned in 1069. By the middle of the thirteenth century, it was handed to the newly formed Order of the Hermits of St Augustine, who transformed the modest parish into a major Gothic-style monastic church arrangement, featuring a large nave and a red-brick bell tower that became one of the tallest structures in Rimini. That bell tower, rising over 55 metres, was for centuries a navigational landmark which was handy for sailors in the Adriatic.
The unfinished brick facade.
A funerary monument from the 1630s.
The church is the burial location of Alberto Marvelli (1918-1946) who has now been beatified for his actions during the Second World War. Known as a campaigner for social justice, he saved many lives during the war but was killed in a car accident in 1946. In 2004, Pope John Paul II declared him Blessed, and his tomb inside this church has become a place of quiet pilgrimage.
The church has a beautiful interior, spacious and dignified. There are some fourteenth century frescoes from artists involved with the Rimini School of Painting, but more of that in another post as they surprised and delighted me when I found them.
The decorated ceiling and apparently (well, I’m not going to know either way) there are some stuccoes by Ferdinando Galli-Bibiena (1647-1743).
I thought that this was rather realistic.
Anyway, a really rather lovely church, but one of the staff mentioned to me that there were some frescoes and this was my favourite thing about the building, so much so they can get their own post.