The church is a nice neoclassic building whose interior resembles that of the Pantheon. It was erected for will of pope Pious VII after having come back from the exile (1816-25). The project was of Giuseppe Valadier.
In 1452, in this place, a monastery of Camaldolesi nuns of St. Catherine was founded (one of the six pre-Napoleon female orders in Cesena). The church, restored in 1470, was later re-built first in 1630 and then in 1740 on a project by G. F. Zondini.
In 1807 pope Pious VII Chiaramonti, before being exiled by Napoleon, bought for his family the big palazzo Carli, few meters far from the church. In 1814, on the way back from exile, the pope had a rest in his birth-town for 17 days and, as a thanksgiving sign, wanted a new church to be erected in place of the old one. The task was given to the very architect of the pope, Giuseppe Valadier, and the works began in 1816. But from the beginning they were hurted by financial problems and a new, cheaper project by Benedetto Barbieri was realized. In the end, the steady will of the family Chiaramonti took the original project of Valadier to be applied, and the church to be ended (1825). Only in 1894 the bell tower was built.
The architectonic structure is unique in Cesena, presenting a portico, with Doric colums, recessed from the street. At the entrance, the coat of arms of the pope Pious VII. The dome is made by copper.
The interior is typically neoclassical, with a roof which recalls precisely the Pantheon of Rome. The plan is circular, with two chapels at the sides and Doric columns linked two by two. In the presbitery, a painting I Santi Cristina, Pio V e Demetrio, of the studio of Camuccini; the left chapel presents a Madonna di Costantinopoli, i Ss. Francesco Saverio, Ignazio di Loyola e un angelo by the Cesenate Giovan Battista Razzani (1642); in the right chapel, S. Antonio da Padova by an uncertain painter. In the sacristy, a remarkable tabernacle of wood, designed by Valadier himself.
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