The church of San Pietro in Valle is a religious building in the centre of Fano, an example of Marche Baroque, with a façade left unfinished and an interior richly filled with gold, stucco, marble and paintings.
What to see
It was built on the ruins of an old church of the same name, which according to the sources dates from 778. Scholars are divided over the meaning of «in Valle»: it could indicate the position in the lower part of the city, in a dip in the ground, or come from the Latin vallum, wall, because of its closeness to the ruins of the Roman walls. The Congregation of the Oratorian Fathers, founded in 1598 by Girolamo Gabrielli on the example of Saint Philip Neri, had as its first seat the old church of San Pietro and, needing a larger church, built this one with the support of Gabrielli and other noble families of Fano. Work began in 1610 to a design by Giovanni Battista Cavagna, who died before it was finished and was replaced by other architects; the church was consecrated in 1617, still unfinished. The dome is by Girolamo Caccia, of 1696, later decorated by Lauro Buonaguardia.
The plan is a Latin cross, with a single nave with a barrel vault, tall Ionic pilasters and six side chapels, three on each side, named for the Fano families who financed the building. The brick façade was left unfinished, without the stone facing that a drawing envisaged: bare outside, it contrasts with the interior, where white and gold mark the walls. The vault has stuccoes by Pietro Solari and frescoes by Antonio Viviani with episodes from the lives of Saint Peter and Saint Paul, among them the Quo vadis and Saint Paul's landing at Malta. On the high altar, in place of Guido Reni's Handing over of the Keys, of 1626, taken to France in the Napoleonic spoliations and now in the Louvre, is a copy by Carlo Magini.
Visiting
The church is in the centre of Fano, according to other sources between via Nolfi and via San Francesco. The sources consulted give no opening hours or visiting arrangements: check them.
Our editors' tip
According to other sources, in the chapel of the Annunziata is an Annunciation by Guido Reni of 1621; above the portal, inside, the epigraph of 1679 commemorates Father Girolamo Gabrielli.
