Telephone: 0546/656833
Description: This ancient church was built in 1396 and then rebuilt in the mid 1700’s. The religious building was erected contemporarily with the building of the hospital of S. Maria. In the middle of the 18th century the church was completely transformed. The Bolognan Ottavio Toselli made a project for the chapel and the altar to house the statues of Alfonso da Ferrara, known as il Lombardi, coming from the old church. The construction work began in 1751, but was stopped for twenty years until 1772, when the work was given to Cosimo Morelli. During the design stages he imagined a Greek cross with a hemispheric cupola at its intersection. In the simulated side arms, Morelli placed slightly curved altar pieces and doors and tribunes with grates on the sides of the nave. The cupola is raised over four arches, two of which (those that unite the two side walls) make a great Greek fret motif. The façade leans on three Doric arches inserted into the series of porticoes of the adjacent buildings. The church was formally blessed in 1774. The church was not included in the French suppression, but was closed in 1865; abandoned, stripped of its furnishings (the statues by Lombardi were moved to S. Petronio at the beginning of 1915), damaged during the last war, the church was partially restored by the Local Government and the Superintendence of Ravenna. Inside the complex there was also a small oratory used by the Brothers of Mercy, who also ran the hospital. The church is now de-consecrated and used for exhibitions and cultural events.
