The most interesting architectural structure overlooking Piazzale Cellini is the Church of St. Michael the Archangel known as St. Angelo. It dates from the 13th-14th centuries; from this period, there remains in the brick facade, the Romanesque-Gothic portal made of sandstone and Istrian stone, on whose lunette was recently placed a polychrome terracotta, bust of Christ Crucified, by Cleto Capponi; the right portal of Renaissance style, was built in 1552 by Don Antonio Spina, who also had the bell tower erected on a pre-existing structure in 1598. The interior was transformed to the state it still retains, in the years 1792-95 by architect Giuseppe Rossetti: it has a single nave little pronounced in height, with a small dome barely noticeable, semicircular apse. The compass at the entrance, made of oak, with the small rosettes of the roof all unequal, was made in 1977 by Claudio and Giuseppe Fazzini (brothers of the better-known Pericles). On the left wall are Madonna and Child (18th-century canvas with sunburst frame); ancient stone stoup (14th-15th centuries, also used as a baptismal font); 1569 canvas by Durante Nobili, depicting Madonna and Child and Saints Savino and Luke; above the cornice, modern window with polychrome glass (sacred art by Cristiani, Crema). The chancel was renovated in 1938-41 and in the 1970s; the altarpiece, St. Michael the Archangel plunging the souls of the damned into hell, was executed in Ascoli Piceno in 1985 by painter Domenico Filipponi.
From the right wall of the church, where, among other things, one can admire the "Flight into Egypt," a canvas (1997) by Giuliano Pulcini, one enters the Chapel of the Holy Crucifix, where a miraculous clothed Simulacrum (the work of an unknown author who probably lived in the 17th century) has been venerated for centuries. Built in the years 1874-1900 to a design by Giuseppe Maria Menchi, the chapel is almost a small temple with a central píanta; the altar design and pictorial decoration (1919) are by Ripan Don Luigi Sciocchetti. On the right wall is a fresco by Ugolino di Vanne of Milan, dated 1426, from the small church of Santa Maria della Petrella: it depicts the Madonna seated on a throne, holding the Child caressing an ermine, two Angels worshipping her, and Saints Peter and Paul on either side. On the left wall is a 15th-century fresco, originally from the church: it depicts the Madonna and Child holding a bird, with St. Anthony Abbot and another saint. The 14 Stations of the Cross, in bronze-patinated scagliola, are the work and gift of Pericle Fazzini and were placed here in 1966. The chapel's artistic heritage is completed by two canvases by Ameide Guerrini, painted in the 1980s to commemorate the fallen (on the left of the altar) and the missing (on the right) of World War II; two other canvases of devotional art from the Baroque period, depicting: St. Anthony Abbot (on the right, it comes from the former church of the same name of the Dominican Nuns); St. Catherine of Siena praying to the Virgin for the purging souls. On the parapet of the chancel in 1985 Domenico Filipponi painted the town's ancient trades in the foreground and the turreted Ripatransone in the background. The liturgical organ is by the Verati firm of Bologna and dates from the early 1900s. From the rectory one can access the ancient small crypt, with a cross vault outlined by four ribs (13th-14th centuries). In October 1998 the roof of the church was overhauled and the roof of the Chapel of the Crucifix was completely redone.
Church of San Michele Arcangelo, known as Sant’Angeloadmin2023-05-13T20:28:59+02:00