San Ciriaco stands on Ancona’s Guasco hill, the acropolis where Syracusan Greek settlers once raised a temple to Aphrodite to watch over their harbor. A paleochristian basilica went up on the same spot in the sixth century, and by the eleventh it had become the city’s cathedral; the Greek-cross plan and thirteenth-century twelve-sided dome, rare for Italy, borrow as much from Byzantium as from Romanesque builders back home.
The protiro at the entrance rests on two carved stone lions, medieval guardians still doing their job. Bombed in the Second World War, the cathedral was rebuilt stone by stone; restorer Giuseppe Sacconi had already stripped its Baroque overlay around 1900, so what stands today reads close to medieval. The terrace outside gives one of the best harbor views in the Marche.
Sources and citations (4)
- Arcidiocesi di Ancona-OsimoSotto lo sguardo di San Ciriaco: Santa Messa e benedizione della cittaArticle title and first paragraph naming the cathedral, archdiocese, and Rector of the DuomoRead source
- Museo Diocesano di AnconaLa Cattedrale di San CiriacoNote storico-artistiche, first and second paragraphsRead source
- Ufficio Beni Culturali Ecclesiastici, Arcidiocesi di Ancona-OsimoPresentazione dell'Itinerario Giubilare di Ancona e della Guida sulla Cattedrale di San CiriacoGuide summary, passage stating that the cathedral rises on the ruins of a Greek templeRead source
- Arcidiocesi di Ancona-OsimoMuseiMuseo Diocesano di Ancona description, location in the old episcopal palace beside the cathedralRead source
