Built by Sigismondo Pandolfo Malatesta, Rimini's ruler from 1432 to 1468, the temple stands on a site occupied by the church of Santa Maria in Trivio, and from the 13th century onwards by the San Francesco Church. This was decorated with paintings that have now been lost, apart from a Crucifixion by Giotto, the only work by this artist in Rimini, dating back to the early 1300's. Near the church was a monastery and a graveyard in which several members of the Malatesta family were buried.

With the temple, never completed in his lifetime, Sigismondo succeeded in his ambition of reuniting his family relics in a single place.


Work on the temple started in 1447 with the opening of two sepulchre chapels for Sigismondo and his third wife, Isotta degli Atti. Sigismondo then decided to rebuild the church in its entirety, entrusting the project to Leone Battisti Alberti, who was inspired by Roman traditions, as seen in the façade and on the side walls, which recall the Augustus Arch and the Tiberius Bridge. The elegance of the exterior was matched by rich interior decorations. Matteo dei Pasti and Agostino di Duccio worked with an almost pictorial sensitivity on the marble facings of the six side chapels. 

The decorations can be interpreted in many ways, from the celebration of the love of Sigismondo and Isotta to philosophical themes, but what emerges above all is the personality of Sigismondo, seen kneeling before St Sigismund in a fresco by Piero della Francesca, and also dominant in the depiction of Rimini in the Chapel of the Planets, above which is the sign of Cancer, Sigismondo's own zodiac sign.