Church of San Claudio al
Documented since the 11th century, it is one of the most important and ancient examples of Romanesque architecture in the Marches, still intact in its original conformation and inserted in a still intact landscape. The church has numerous typological particularities. In fact, it has a plan internally articulated by four pillars to form a Greek cross inscribed in a square. There are semicircular apses along the perimeter: on the sides and on the eastern side. The building also has two floors with a lower and an upper church. Finally, the facade is flanked by two cylindrical towers. Generally its particular structure with a central plan is referred to a Byzantine influence as well as the circular towers to the Ravenna model. However, a Lombard influence could be recognized in the composition of the volumetric masses and in the treatment of the external wall surfaces with blind arches and pilasters. Hildegard Sahler has instead supported the substantial independence of the construction from oriental models and its derivation instead from western models of Nordic origin, traceable in the two-level palatine chapels, in the triconch apsidal terminations of the German and then Lombard area, from the facades flanked by towers in Normandy, Germany and Lombardy. The access stairway with balcony and the entrance portal of the upper church, in Istrian stone, were added in the 13th century. Many of the characteristics of the church are shared by a small group of churches in the Marche region, including San Vittore alle Chiuse and Santa Maria delle Moje, of which San Claudio is believed to be the progenitor.
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Photo credit: © lugris / Alamy / Afripics
License: Royalty Free
Model Released: No
Keywords: ages, al, chienti, church, claudio, corridonia, facade, faith, fermo, italy, lugris2, macerata, marche, medieval, middle, monument, national, prayer, religion, romanesque, san, tourism, travel, valley
