The former church of Santa Maria del Gonfalone was a place of worship in the historic centre of Fano, along via Rinalducci.
What to see
It was built in the early seventeenth century by the Confraternity of the Gonfalone on an existing building. Before 1589 it was known as the church of Santa Maria della Carità and was later also called the church of the Madonna di Loreto, because of an altar dedicated to the Virgin of Loreto. The confraternity, called of Santa Maria del Gonfalone or della Carità, was made up of members of the Fano nobility and carried out social and religious functions aimed in particular at elderly women, to whom it gave lodging on the ground floor of the building, and at children, for whom it provided religious instruction. In 1641 the church's services were granted to the Society of Jesus. In the twentieth century the church was deconsecrated and used as a cinema and theatre hall.
Outside, the building has a gabled profile, with an exposed-brick façade framed at the bottom by a white-stone base; the limestone portal has a curved broken pediment, with a splayed frameless window above it and blind windows of the same size at the sides. Each wall of the single nave is marked by five blind bays with round arches, in Neoclassical style, set into a scheme of pilasters and moulded cornices; only the windows at the presbytery are glazed. On the end wall stands a large arch.
Visiting
The former church is in the historic centre of Fano, along via Rinalducci. It became a cinema and theatre hall in the twentieth century: the sources consulted do not say what use it has today or give opening hours or visiting arrangements, so check them.
Our editors' tip
Inside is kept a wooden ceiling with octagonal coffers of 1606, the work of the carver Matteo Carloni of Mondolfo, with at the centre a medallion with the image of Santa Maria della Carità, by Venetian craftsmen.
