Address: Via S.Ippolito
Explaination: Of the very first Benedictine construction remains only the beautiful crypt, the most important in Faenza for its antiquity and integrity. It is made up of three areas and was certainly built in different phases, of which one dates back to the VII-VIII century and another in the XII-XIII century. The building material is partly re-used Roman material (columns, basements, capitols). The current church was instead completely rebuilt in 1771-74 with the design of an unknown architect, although up-to-date in the very first neo-classic characteristics (the name of the young Giuseppe Pistocchi was raised, who was probably helped by Roman maestros; the documents mention only the name of the Head maestro, Gioacchino Tomba from Faenza, on “cartons from Rome”). Thefaçade is plastered but with decorative stucco elements in stone and cotto, framed into two pairs of pilaster strips and today missing the top gable. The interior is richly decorative, with a plant that is remotely suggestive of Borromini with complicated influences of Piranesi and translated mainly onto the stuccos realised by Antonio Trentanove, an artist from Rimini and collaborator of Pistocchi and amongst the main users of the neo-classic language of Faenza. Amongst the numerous works of art there is especially the Venetian-Cretan icon dating back to the early 1500’s with the “Madonna with Child” (third altar on the right), the important “San Benedetto altarpiece” (third altar on the left), once attributed to mannerist of Faenza Alessandro Ardenti but today assigned to Giulio Tonducci (after convincing proof based on the Ferrara-doxology components that profoundly influenced Jacopone Bertucci who worked in the studio of Giulio Tonducci, as explained by Anna Tambini in “Faenza, il Rione Nero”, 1994, pag. 125-129) and the rare, modern altarpiece with “Morte e gloria di San Benedetto” (Death and glory of San Benedetto), carried out by Pietro Lenzini in 1993 for the altar of the right transept.
