Architecture

The perfectly preserved walls were built on the old Roman walls between the 13th and the 14th centuries. They represent a meaningful example of the medieval defence system, with six gates, keeps and curtain walls with brackets. In the 16th century they underwent heavy reconstruction work by the great military architect Baccio Pontelli.

The Cattedrale di San Settimio, a cathedral dedicated to Saint Septimius, the patron of Jesi, stands in Piazza Federico II, the area of the ancient Roman forum. It dates back to the 18th century and has a mostly Baroque inside. Near the cathedral there's the former Chiesa di San Floriano dating back to the 12th century. This building underwent a radical renovation since the 15th century and it reached its present appearance in the late Baroque period. In the first half of the 16th century Lorenzo Lotto painted there some of his masterpieces, which are now housed in the Pinacoteca Civica. At present the complex of San Floriano is the site of the Teatro-Studio Veleria Moriconi. Palazzo Ripanti is in the same square. It houses the Museo Diocesano (Diocesan Museum) which counts about 200 works of art among paintings, sculptures, liturgical ornaments, reliquaries and ex voto. Not far away from here, in Piazza Colocci there is the Palazzo della Signoria, dating back to the 15th century. Designed by Francesco di Giorgio Martini, this palace is a masterpiece of the Renaissance architecture. It encloses a quadrangle court surrounded by covered passages and by two rows of loggias. It houses the Biblioteca Planettiana, a library which counts more than 115 thousand volumes, and the Municipal Historic Archive, which contains documents dating back to the 12th century. The Sala Maggiore is remarkable with its 16th-century wooden ceiling and its 18th-century shelving coming from Palazzo Pianetti vecchio in via Valle, that today houses the Studio per le Arti della Stampa where presses and printing machines from different periods as well as rare books of great value are shown.

The Teatro Giovanni Battista Pergolesi stands in Piazza della Repubblica. Originally named "Theatre of Harmony", it was built between 1790 and 1798 according to a design by Francesco Maria Ciaraffoni and Cosimo Morelli. Renowned for its perfect acoustics, it contains paintings and frescoes in a profusion of gilt and Rococo motifs. In via XV Settembre, a parallel street of main Corso Matteotti, Palazzo Pianetti stands. Built in the 18th century, in Rococo style with Italian gardens, it houses the Pinacoteca Civica. The very rich collection of modern art is characterised by a considerable group of works by Lorenzo Lotto, among which the magnificent "St. Lucy altar piece", considered one of his masterpieces, stands out. The Pinacoteca also houses a collection of contemporary art as well as a splendid collection of 18th-century apothecary's pots. With its polychromatic stuccoes and paintings decorating its vaults and walls, the magnificent 70 metre-long "Galleria Rococo" stretches out on the piano nobile. It is a unique example of its kind in the centre and south of Italy.

The Chiesa di San Nicolò is a noteworthy church in Corso Matteotti, the oldest church we have written memories of. It has Romanesque origins, but was reshaped in Gothic style. In the street of the same name, there is the Benedictine Chiesa di San Marco. Dating back to the 13th century, this church contains a wonderful "Crucifixion", a Rimini School 14th-century fresco.

Aesis, the ancient name of Jesi, was founded by the Romans in 247 or 232 B.C. on a hill on the right of the Esino river, in a strategic location for the control of the Vallesina valley. The urban centre was built according to the traditional Roman Castrum, (Roman fort) with a system of insulae around a forum (probably located in present-day Piazza Federico II), run by two main streets: cardo (Via Pergolesi – Via delle Terme) and decumano (Via Fortino – Costa Lombarda – Via Lucagnolo).

The urban centre is surrounded by defence walls built between the 1st century B.C and the 1st century A.D, probably according to the same scheme of the present-day walls of medieval origin.
The theatre gave onto the forum and its remains can be admired along via Roccabella.
Many other archaeological remains were found during excavation and construction works which unearthed masonry remains and mosaics. One of these mosaics was found in Vicolo delle Terme and can be seen at the Pinacoteca Civica.
Moreover, the traces of an old cistern still remain in the basements of the "Complesso di San Floriano". There a precious sculptural cycle of the Julio-claudian period was found.

In 680 A.D. the Diocese of Jesi was constituted with the election of the first bishop and the following construction of the cathedral dedicated to Saint Salvator and Saint Septimius.
Furthermore, three churches are datable between the 7th and the 8th centuries: Santa Maria del Piano, San Savino and San Marco.
The construction of the Chiesa di San Pietro Apostolo, the oldest parish church of the diocese, dates back to the early 9th-10th century.

Around 1130 Jesi became a "state-city", with its own autonomous government. Protected by Frederick II of Hohenstaufen, the Holy Roman Emperor born in Jesi in 1194, the town enjoyed its period of maximum expansion and prosperity. In this golden age the urban area went back to the size it was in the Roman period, and during the 13th century some hamlets were built outside the walls: San Martino and San Nicolò (corresponding to present-day Corso area), San Floriano (outside porta Garibaldi), Mercatale (present Prato area) and San Filippo (Don Minzoni-Campo Boario area).
The 13th century is a period of fervent urban building activities, both lay and ecclesiastical. The cathedral and the Chiesa di San Floriano were restored, and the Town Hall Palace was built (on the site where Palazzo della Signoria is at present).

Towards the end of the century the Roman town walls were completely repaired and renovated. The old surrounding walls started taking the shape and appearance they have today. Stretching out for a kilometre and a half, the old walls of Jesi are the best preserved in the whole region.

Since the second half of the 15th century the architectural face of the town changed deeply with the construction of new churches and palaces and the progressive urban expansion outside the old walls.

Since 1468 the gothic cathedral was restored, whereas in 1487 Baccio Pontelli, an architect from Florence, strengthened the defensive system of the town with the construction of a new stronghold (demolished in 1527). It was a quadrangular fortress with ramparts at the corners and a central tower, residence of the lord and last bastion defending the town. Today only a massive round keep remains beneath the present town hall palace.

The old Palazzo dei Priori was demolished, and from 1486 to 1498 the Palazzo della Signoria was built on a design by the architect from Siena Francesco di Giorgio Martini. With its perfect proportions, this elegant cube-shaped building is one of the most beautiful Renaissance palaces.

This is a period of recovery for the building industry as well as for art and culture. The great Venetian artist Lorenzo Lotto painted artistic and spiritual masterpieces for the churches of San Floriano and San Francesco al Monte. In 1472 Federico de' Conti from Verona printed in Jesi one of the very first editions of the “Divine Comedy”, and Ciccolino di Lucagnolo, fine goldsmith and Benvenuto Cellini's master, developed and improved his art.

The great religious fervour of the time led to the construction of new churches among which the Chiesa di San Francesco al Monte and the attached convent, as well as the Chiesa dell'Orazione e Morte, today Chiesa dell'Adorazione.

In the Baroque period the town continued to expand despite recurrent famines and pestilences. The walls were extended, including new quarters. The two new belvedere of Via Mura Occidentali and Via Mura Orientali joining at Porta Romana were built, thus closing the new walls.

New churches were built like the Chiesa di San Francesco di Paola, Chiesa di San Rocco, Chiesa di Santa Caterina alle Valche, Chiesa del Soccorso and Chiesa del Sacro Cuore. Others were restored, like the Chiesa di San Giovanni Battista, which was renovated by the Fathers of the Oratory since 1666, the Chiesa di San Bernardo in Palazzo Pianetti vecchio and the Chiesa di San Francesco al Monte, which would be demolished in the 19th century.

During the 18th century the most important noble families of Jesi (Pianetti, Colocci, Ripanti, Honorati, Balleani, Marcelli, Magagnini and others) embellished their houses or built them from scratch on the basis of the new building criteria of functionality and decoration. Moreover, bishops Fonseca and Baldassini promoted the renovation of churches and the construction of charity institutions like the diocesan hospital and the girls' orphanage.

In the historic centre the most important intervention was the redesign of Piazza San Floriano, which involved all the buildings and churches overlooking it. After buying the former Ospedale di Santa Lucia in 1724, the hospital which would be moved to the new complex being built near the Arco Clementino since 1743, count Emilio Ripanti restored this building, joining it to his old family residence. Since 1757 the residence too underwent major restoration works: a new façade was made and the monumental grand staircase was added by the architect from Arcevia Andrea Vici, probably in collaboration with his father Arcangelo.

Since 1741 the cathedral underwent restoration works on a design by the architect Filippo Barigioni, and Palazzo Balleani was renovated too. Designed in 1720 by the Roman architect Francesco Feruzzi, this building has got a delicate and linear Rococò façade.

The complex of the Chiesa di San Floriano and the attached convent of the Franciscan Fathers underwent major changes during the 18th century, taking the present Late-Baroque structure of a central plan church. The architect from Fano Francesco Ciarrafoni and the architect from Cupra Montana Mattia Capponi probably worked on the complex. The Roman architect Virginio Bracci designed the new Palazzo Carotti, providing it with a marvellous internal grand-staircase leading from the court to the ground floor and the upper floors with rooms rich in Neoclassical decorations and paintings. Most probably the Roman architect designed also the 18th century grand staircase of Palazzo Amici-Honorati, at the junction between Piazza Federico II and via Pergolesi.

In the historic centre the old Chiesa di San Pietro, destroyed by a fire in 1720, was rebuilt from scratch. Other palaces like those of the families Marcelli, Rocchi, Malatesta, Franciolini, Tosi and Colocci underwent additions and changes according to the artistic and architectural style of the time which called for an internal court, a double-flight grand staircase and a state room as large and sumptuous as the wealth the social prestige of the family.

Moreover, new public and private buildings were built in this period: the Teatro Pergolesi, the palaces of the Magagnini, Grizi, Honorati, Franchetti and Fossa families, the marvelous Palazzo Pianetti as well as the diocesan hospital and the girls' orphanage located near the Arco Clementino which was built in 1734 by Domenico Valeri to honour Clement XII. Here ends Corso Matteotti, the long and straight main street of the town.

The 18th century was also the period which witnessed the birth of the two great musicians Giovanni Battista Pergolesi and Gaspare Spontini.