The church of Sant'Umiltà, in Faenza, is a unique building in the city's architectural landscape, because it is the most important testimony of the local late Baroque, or Rococo.
What to see
Built in the sixteenth century, it was totally rebuilt in 1741 by Raffaele Campidori and Gian Battista Boschi. The interior is striking for its balanced volumes and above all for its gilded stucco decoration, attributed to Gian Battista Verda, and for its most delicate colours. The Greek-cross structure is divided into three naves, a large one in the centre and two much smaller ones at the sides, reached through a portico of capital-less columns topped by round arches; what strikes most is the poverty of the hall, whose ceiling has no decoration at all.
The apse area, by contrast, is richly ornate, surrounded by Doric columns set against the wall on which a decorated entablature rests; the dome over the apse is entirely frescoed in vivid colours. The altar has a marble base with four columns, from which two pairs of marble columns with Corinthian capitals rise to carry a second entablature, and three coloured arches ever smaller, on the last of which stand two gilded winged putti; between the columns is a painting of the Virgin standing, in a blue dress, holding the Child, on a gold background. The floor is decorated so as to give the impression of a mosaic, except for some parts that are really mosaic. In the two side apses are frescoes of a gloomier character, in darker and more disquieting colours. The exterior is bare, with the façade covered in a pinkish colour and enlivened by a little white marble decoration.
Visiting
The church, suppressed as a place of worship, is owned by the Province of Ravenna, which in the nineteen-nineties subjected it to a long and careful restoration, and is also used as a public hall. The sources consulted give no opening hours or visiting arrangements: check them.
Our editors' tip
Looking at the floor one gets the impression of walking on a mosaic: the decoration simulates it almost everywhere, and only in some places is it real mosaic.
