PARISH CHURCH OF THE HOLY ANNUNZIATA
The parish church of SS Annunziata is located in the upper part of the village, where the ancient parish church of Montecarotto has stood since the 13th century,it is also known as the church of the Pieve, where the “fortress” stood a few centuries earlier. Its rebuild project started in 1779 directed by the Dominican architect Father Pietro Belli, who conceived the church of San Domenico in Ancona, and its facade was completed in 1807 . In 1808 the church, for its solemnity, was elected “Apostolic Collegiate”.
The church, with a Latin cross and single nave structure, is built in a sober but elegant neoclassical style with some baroque elements, such as the two chapels on the sides of the transept. The chapel on the left hosts the altar of the Madonna of the ancient brotherhood of the Gonfalone, while the chapel on the right holds the altar of the Sacrament.
The most spectacular part is the presbytery, where the main altar is located,it was made by Michele Rusconi of Lugano and it preserves the old frontal of polychrome marble.
Above the walnut wood choir, carved by master Marcantonio Polidori of San Lorenzo in Campo, stands the canvas of the Annunciation of the Virgin (17th century) The artist is unknown.
The apse basin was frescoed with the dominant image of Christ Pantocrator in 1950, on the initiative of the parish priest of the time, by the painter Brother Ernesto Bergagna, of the Beato Angelico school of Milan, who was also responsible for the construction of the crypt, statues and reliquaries.
Along the nave, there are four altars placed inside niches, built within the thickness of the walls. On the left, as you enter, you will find the altar of San Carlo Borromeo, then that of the Sacred Heart; on the right, the altar dedicated to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, originally to the Immaculate Conception,that follows the altar of the baptistery formerly dedicated to the Nativity.
Adjacent to the church, the rectory was built in 1792 based on a design by Isidoro Capponi.
Among the numerous works of art preserved in the collegiate church and in the adjacent rooms, the following should be noted:
– two paintings by the painter Ercole Ramazzani, a pupil of Lorenzo Lotto (16th century);
– a mocked Christ, good copy of the Carraccis school (16th-17th century);
– the Face of Christ, a work of the Neapolitan school (17th century);
– an Institution of the Eucharist, canvas by Giambattista della Rocca Contrada (1606),
– some excellent copies of works by Ribera, known as the “Spagnoletto”;
– a wooden sculptural group depicting the risen Christ, dated 1781;
– the organ by Saverio and Sebastiano Vici dating back to 1776, working again after the restoration in 2009.
For info and activities of the Parish
www.parrocchiamontecarotto.it
