Europe
Italy
Ancona
church of Saint Dominic

A brief description.

Ancona is a city and a seaport in the Marche, a region of central Italy, and situated on the Adriatic Sea. The town is finely situated on and between the slopes of the two extremities of the promontory of Monte Conero, Monte Astagno, occupied by the citadel, and Monte Guasco, on which the Duomo stands (150 m). The latter, dedicated to St Judas Cyriacus, is said to occupy the site of a temple of Venus, who is mentioned by Catullus and Juvenal as the tutelary deity of the place.

Ancona was founded from Syracuse about 390 BC, who gave it its name: Ancona is a very slightly modified transliteration of A Greek word, meaning "elbow"; after the situation of  the harbour.
When it became a Roman colony is doubtful. It was occupied as a naval station in the Illyrian War of 178 BC (Livy xli. i). Julius Caesar took possession of it immediately after crossing the Rubicon.

After the fall of the Western Roman Empire, Ancona was successively attacked by the Goths, Lombards and Saracens, but recovered its strength and importance. It was one of the cities of the Pentapolis under the exarchate of Ravenna.
With the Carolingian conquest of northern Italy, it became the capital of the Marca di Ancona, whence the name of the modern region.
After 1000 Ancona became increasingly independent, eventually turning into an important maritime republic (together with Gaeta, Trani and Ragusa, it is one of those not appearing on the Italian naval flag), often clashing against the nearby power of Venezia.
An oligarchic republic, Ancona was ruled by six Elders, elected by the three terzieri into which the city was divided: S. Pietro, Porto and Capodimonte. It has a coin of its own, the agontano, and a series of laws known as Statuti del mare e del Terzenale and Statuti della Dogana. Ancona was usually allied with Ragusa and the Byzantine Empire.

In 1137, 1167 and 1174 it was strong enough to push back imperial forces. Anconitan ships took part in  the Crusades, and its  navigators include Cyriac of Ancona. In the struggle between the Popes and the Emperors that troubled Italy from the 12th century onwards, Ancona sides for Guelphs.

Differently from other cities of northern Italy, Ancona never became a seignory. The sole exception was the rule of  the Malatesta, who took the city in 1348 taKing advantage of the black death and of a fire that had destroyed much of the edifices. The Malatesta were ousted in 1383. In 1532 it lost definitively its freedom and became part of the Papal States, under Pope Clement VII.
Symbol of the papal authority was the massive Citadel. Together with Roma and Avignon, Ancona was the sole city in the Papal States in which the Jews were allowed to stay after 1569, living in  the ghetto built after 1555.

From 1797 onwards, when the French took it, it frequently appears in history as an important fortress, until Christophe Léon Louis Juchault de Lamoricière capitulated here on September 29, 1860, eleven days after his defeat at Castelfidardo.

For the cathedral and monuments see Internet s.v.Wikipedia: Ancona.

The church of Saint Dominic

The church of Saint Dominic in Ancona was built between 1763 and 1788 after the plans of the Italian architect Carlo Marchionni (10.02.1702-28.07.1786).

Because of its construction the earlier church of Maria Incoronata  was demolished and a new building was constructed behind the ground plan of the former one, in order to enlarge the square.

In the church an Annunciation (1562) by Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri, (02.1591-09.12.1566),  and a Crucifixion with Virgin and Saints by Tizian, oil on panel, 371x197 cm.; today preserved in the Pinacoteca  Civica ‘Francesco Podesti’ in Ancona.

Philately

Crucifixion of Christ with the Blessed Virgin
and Saints by Titian, 1558, oil on panel,
371x197 cm.
Today preserved in the Pinacoteca  Civica
‘Francesco Podesti’ in Ancona.

Antigua and Barbuda 1988, Mi 1118, Sc 1109.

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