Description
CATTEDRALE DI SAN FLAVIANO E MUSEO DIOCESIANO
The church of St. Flaviano is the cathedral of Recanati, and co-cathedral of the diocese of Macerata-Tolentino-Recanati-Cingoli-Treia. It obtained the title of basilica from Pope Pius VI on 12th June 1805. History and description The primitive cathedral was built before one thousand; very few traces of it remain in the current crypt. Traditionally dedicated to St. Flaviano, it is attributed to the Patriarch of Constantinople, whose relic is preserved in the cathedral from the port of Giulianova, but historians nowadays prefer a primitive dedication to St. Flaviano of Ricina. He was the first bishop of the destroyed Roman city of Helvia Recina, from whose ashes the same Recanati was born after the 6th century. At the beginning of the 13th century a new church was built, later rebuilt by Cardinal Angelo of Bevagna between 1389 and 1412. This structure was rebuilt and embellished several times: the coffered ceiling, built in 1620, is particularly valuable. The apse was embellished with stuccos and frescoes in 1650: on this occasion the Martyrdom of St. Flaviano, the Annunciation, the Translation of the Holy House of Loreto and the Nativity of the Virgin were carried out. Several bishops of Recanati are buried in the crypt. Among these in the cathedral there is the sarcophagus of Pope Gregory XII. The two organs are from the beginning of the 20th century, built by Inzoli and Vegezzi Bossi. Adjacent to the basilica is the old episcopal palace, which, after decades of neglect, has been the seat of the diocesan museum since 1957. The section of Modern Painting includes a collection of works by local artists such as the engraver Giacomo Braccialarghe and the restorer and art critic Biagio Biagetti.