Magnificent example of integration between architecture, plastic decoration and painting, the Church of San Pietro in Valle is an excellently successful union between the numerous languages of the pictorial province of the Marche and the great Roman and Bolognese cultural traditions, and one of the most striking examples of sumptuous art baroque in the Marche region.
So named because it was built near the ancient difference in level (ad vallum) between the Roman city and the Adriatic coast, the Church of San Pietro in Valle, located in the historic center of the city, represents one of the best examples of the Marche Baroque.
Built on the ruins of an ancient church founded by the Congregation of the Oratorian Fathers in the 8th century, the new larger structure was finished in 1610 thanks to the contribution of the noble families of Fano, in particular that of Girolamo Gabrielli. The church, a building with a Latin cross plan, with six side chapels, crowned by a high drum with dome, was consecrated in 1617 without the decorations having yet been completed. With the bare facade left without the expected cladding and its exposed bricks which contrast with the interior rich in gold, stucco, marble and paintings, the Church of San Pietro in Valle is certainly one of the most striking examples of sumptuous baroque art in the Marche region.
The ornamentation of the church was created between 1618 and 1620 by the Roman artist Pietro Solari, also employed in Fano at the Nolfi Chapel in the Cathedral, and the Urbino artist Antonio Viviani known as the Sordo.
The latter are the large frescoes that decorate the vaults of the nave and presbytery as well as those on the sides of the large façade window. Also by him is the Annunciation which dominates the wall of the main altar and the two side paintings of the chapel dedicated to St. Paul.
The sumptuous baroque decoration of the dome was instead carried out by the Bolognese Lauro Buonaguardia in the two-year period 1699-1700. Looking upwards, at the intersection of the arms of the Latin cross plan, the contrast between the white and the gold stands out in a riot of angels, blessed and, inside the circles, the four evangelists.
Of exceptional value and beauty, the "gallery of rare paintings" that decorated the main altar and the six side chapels. In the first chapel on the left, the Annunciation by Guido Reni stands out for its stylistic grace, while in the one on the right, the luminous Virgin appearing to S. Filippo Neri by Luigi Garzi.
Among the other excellent names who worked on the church construction site, leaving works of extraordinary stylistic quality, were Guercino, Simone Cantarini from Pesaro and G. F. Guerrieri from Fossombrone.
Several works were stolen from France during the Napoleonic era, including Guido Reni's splendid 1626 painting Christ Delivering the Keys to St. Peter, currently exhibited in the Louvre museum, while Carlo Magini's nineteenth-century copy remains in San Pietro in Valle. ; the other, very precious works, are today preserved in the Pinacoteca of the Palazzo Malatestiano.
