The church of Santa Maria Maddalena is on via Cavallotti, once via del Ricovero, in the historic centre of Senigallia. Its origins may go back to the thirteenth century: it was the town's first parish church, with a hospital attached, and stood just outside the centre, on the road to the Porta Sant'Angelo, near the Nevola river. It is first recorded in 1270. The meadow around it took its name and hosted the old fair, from which the Fiera della Maddalena was born.
What to see
Badly damaged by the flood of 27 November 1472, in 1480 it was demolished and rebuilt at the wish of Giovanni Della Rovere; from 1491 it was entrusted to the Franciscans. It was rebuilt again in 1751, and from 1808 to 1930 the friary housed the town hospital. It is the only church in Senigallia facing east; the brick façade, on two levels, ends in a triangular pediment, and the doorway has an Istrian stone frame.
The interior has a single nave with three altars on each side. The three apses hold the chapels of the Fagnani family, with the burial inscription of the mathematician Giulio Fagnano dei Toschi. There are two canvases by Domenico Corvi, of Saint Emidius and Saint Anthony of Padua; the latter's chapel belonged to the Mastai Ferretti, and relatives of Pope Pius IX are buried there. On the high altar is the Madonna della Misericordia with Saint Paulinus and Saint Mary Magdalene by Antonio del Giudice, of Barocci's school, and in the presbytery an eighteenth-century organ by Pietro Nachini.
Visiting
Mass and opening times should be checked with the parish.
Our editors' tip
In the third chapel on the left is a crucifix that, according to tradition, was found on the beach in the Middle Ages and is considered miraculous; in the second a painting shows the Madonna with the town as it looked in the seventeenth century at her feet.
