Syusy Blady returns to Val Mivola

council chamber

The Town Hall or Palazzo Albani is to be considered among the most authoritative examples of the construction of the municipality of the same name, characterised by the tower located adjacent to it and the keep, connected via the passage door towards the centre.

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Via Castello, 4, 60010 Barbara AN 4

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Traces of Style: The Ex Liberty Bank

Leaving the town hall and strolling along the main street, your gaze will be drawn to a façade that stands out for its singular beauty. This is the building that once housed the local bank, which closed following its bankruptcy in 1929. Despite its unfortunate financial history, the building is an architectural gem that still retains its charm intact: you can admire splendid Art Nouveau floral bas-reliefs decorating the surface, creating an elegant and unexpected contrast between the rusticity of the exposed brick and the refinement of the early 20th-century floral art.

Church of Santa Maria Assunta

Built in 1787 at the behest of Cardinal Giovanni Francesco Albani based on a design by architect Francesco Ciarafoni, the Church of Santa Maria Assunta is a valuable art treasure trove featuring a copy of Correggio’s Nativity attributed to Domenichino, a Saint Sebastian by Paolo Gismondi, the Assumption by Giovanni Pirri, a Madonna and Saints by Pomarancio, and Christ at the Column by Francesco Trevisani.

The perspective of the street is closed by the imposing front of the monumental church of the Assumption, a neoclassical work by Francesco Ciarafoni from Ancona. Inside, in addition to the artisanal precious works of the late eighteenth century, such as the plaster statues of the famous stonemasons of Sant’Ippolito – dedicated by the leaders of the time to the most famous or venerated saints on site – the wooden choir, with the eighteenth-century portraits of the commendatory abbots above – the jealousies of the choir stalls, the confessionals, the elegantly worked or inlaid wooden furniture of the sacristy, the friezes, the refined original furnishings, to the artistic “miraculous” seventeenth-century crucifix, to the precious baptistery below, finely decorated with biblical subjects, one can visit a true art gallery of the modern age, largely due to the abbey’s income and the consequent munificence of the cardinal-abbots, the penultimate of whom, Giovanni Francesco Albani, in 1787 wanted to have the old church where he had received minor orders rebuilt with dignity. Entering on the right you find an excellent copy of Correggio’s Nativity already attributed to Domenichino, continuing you have the seventeenth-century Saint Sebastian by the classical painter Paolo Gismondi from Perugia, whose dimensions were expanded in the ‘700 when the painting had already undergone a chromatic blurring, as highlighted by the recent restoration. The Assumption in the apse, commissioned specifically from the painter Giovanni Pirri, fits harmoniously into the culture of the time and the interior decorations inspired by a classical temple, with its archaeological references and the ancient setting of the scene. But the church’s jewels can be considered Pomarancio’s Madonna and Saints, a painting unfortunately later expanded and in any case comparable in value to the works that the artist dedicated to the Basilica of Loreto, as well as the dramatic Baroque image of Christ at the Column by the Venetian Francesco Trevisani.

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Corso Vittorio Emanuele II

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Battistero

Built in 1791 by Cardinal Giovanni Francesco Albani with an octagonal plan, symbol of resurrection (seven days of Creation, the eighth is the extra day, eternity), while the fountain has three doors and symbolizes the Holy Trinity.

The Baptistery was restored in 1998. The octagonal plan is a symbol of resurrection; the baptismal font, carved by Francesco Saverio Moschetti of Monte Giorgio, has three doors and symbolizes the Holy Trinity. In the main mirror, the precursor Saint John the Baptist is depicted in bas-relief figures in the act of baptizing the Savior. Inside the spring is preserved the copper water tray, with the Albani coat of arms.
On the walls, four lunettes tell the story of original sin; the painted pelican is an allegorical symbol referring to the Eucharist. The deer, the ostrich, the lion and the elephant, represented on the walls, symbolize the four cardinal virtues.

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Corso Vittorio Emanuele II

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Paramenti Sacri Museum

The Parish Museum of S. Maria Assunta houses a valuable collection of ancient liturgical objects covering a time span from the 15th to the 18th century.

Originally a pre-Napoleonic cemetery, it was transformed into a museum in May 2001; the shell-shaped ceiling symbolizes fertility. Among the objects collected we can admire: the golden “planet” that the commendatory abbot Giovanni Francesco Albani wore in 1751, the silverware in use between the 17th and 19th centuries, candlesticks, palm holders, wooden objects from the 19th century and the valuable wooden statue of Saint Barbara, attributable to the last decades of the ’400. The work could be linked to the commission of Silvestro di Giovanni as a votive offering following the siege of the castle in the years 1460-1461 by the artillery of Sigismondo Malatesta, lord of Rimini.
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Strada Provinciale 11

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Padella Square

It is the smallest square in the world, three by four meters, but it is also the place of memories and emotions.

It’s called Piazza Padella because of its shape, a twelve-square-meter space accessed from a Lilliputian alley, which serves as the handle of this virtual frying pan located in the heart of Barbara’s historic center and, in its own small way, is also a place of connection and social interaction precisely because of the proximity of the houses.

The alley-manico of Piazza Padella opens in fact a stone’s throw from the church. The municipality of Barbara has presented it as the smallest square in the world and you have to believe it, it’s Guinness World Record stuff.

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Corso Vittorio Emanuele II°, 29, 60010 Barbara AN 29

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City Walls

A 15th-century hexagonal wall surrounds the medieval village of Barbara, perched on the crest of an elongated hill ridge between the Misa and Nevola rivers.

The village of Barbara is made up of two parts: the Castle, or the 13th-century fortified centre surrounded by a fortified perimeter and delimited to the south by Porta Roma and to the north by the gate of the arch of Santa Barbara, and the Village, or the medieval town which extends from the gate of the arch of Santa Barbara onto a slope or flat towards the neoclassical church of the Assumption. The Castle, renovated in the fifteenth century, is still surrounded by a sloping wall, equipped with four corner fortifications and culminating in an imposing raised keep, currently known as “‘l Torrione”. The two small towers on the north side, those overlooking Via Castelfidardo, are essentially intact and still feature the artillery emplacement, battlements, or gun ports for culverins or arquebuses. The tall tower to the right of Porta Roma was rebuilt in the 1960s on the site of a previous 15th-century tower that was destroyed by bombing during World War II. The base of a fourth tower house is visible, located between the gate of the arch of Santa Barbara and Via delle Mura.

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Raggiungi

Syusy Blady returns to Val Mivola

council chamber

Traces of Style: The Ex Liberty Bank

Battistero

Church of Santa Maria Assunta

Paramenti Sacri Museum

Padella Square

City Walls

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City Itinerary “Santa Barbara” – points of historical and cultural interest

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