Cesena Cathedral

Content sourced from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

Cesena Cathedral, also known as Duomo di Cesena or Cattedrale di San Giovanni Battista, is a Roman Catholic church in Cesena, Italy. It has been the seat of the Diocese of Cesena-Sarsina since 1986.

Pope Urban VI ordered the church to be built in 1378 to replace an older church. Construction began in 1385 and finished around 1404–1405. The building is Romanesque-Gothic in style. The architect is likely Undervaldo, probably from Switzerland. The bell tower was built between 1443 and 1457, designed by Maso di Pietro and funded by Bishop Antonio Malatesta da Fossombrone, who also had the nearby Bishop’s Palace started; it was completed by his successor Giovanni Venturelli (1475–1486).

In the 1960s the cathedral was heavily rebuilt, and only part of the eastern door remains from the original structure. Next to the cathedral is the Renaissance Chapel of Saint Tobias, now the cathedral museum. The old Saint Tobias hospital no longer exists. The façade was completed at the end of the 15th century and is attributed to the Venetian architect Mauro Coducci.

Inside, the remains of Saint Maurus of Cesena (died 946) are kept in the Altar of Saint John; the sculpture was made by Giovanni Battista Bregno da Osteno (1494–1505). A small copper painting of Saint John by Livio Agresti has been returned to the cathedral.

In the Chapel of the Madonna del Popolo are frescoes by Corrado Giaquinto from 1750. The painting was crowned by Pope Pius VI on 3 June 1782, the first papal coronation in papal history.