Church of San Giovanni

The main work of Gaspare Spontini's philanthropic project was the Ospizio di Carità, today a rest home for the elderly, designed to provide assistance to the sick and welcome the less well-off. The foundation stone was laid on 5 November 1845: while the rough work on the Ospizio factory, supervised by architect Ciriaco Santini of Jesi, was completed in 1848, the project was not finally completed until 1870. The Church of San Giovanni, is incorporated inside the Hospice and stands on an earlier church dating back to 1450. The interior presents elegant neoclassical forms and has a rectangular plan with the apse housed inside a large niche. The peculiar oval roofing gives the chapel a majestic appearance, softened by pairs of Corinthian columns on which rests a cornice from which the vaults depart. On the altar is a painting commissioned by Celeste Erard from a French painter in 1851: the work depicts the Crucifixion with the Madonna, St. John and Mary Magdalene painted on canvas, while the wooden crucifix is the pre-existing original. On the left side is Spontini's tomb, the work of architect Fedele Bianchini of Macerata. The monument, also in neoclassical style, is surrounded by a wrought iron and brass railing. The sarcophagus, on the other hand, made of grey marble sculpted in bas-relief, rests on a base on which an inscription by Professor Ignazio Montanari of the Liceo Campana in Osimo can be read. In the centre of the sarcophagus is a large medallion with the profile of Spontini's face. Since at the time of the maestro's death on 24 January 1851, work on the interior of the church had not yet been completed, just as the mausoleum had not yet been designed, the body was initially placed in the parish church of Santo Stefano, where the funeral was celebrated on 27 January. Dressed in the uniform of an academician of France, Spontini's body was enclosed in a polished walnut casket, covered by a zinc casket, both in turn contained in a third large oak casket. The Church of San Giovanni was not inaugurated until 6 March 1853 and the ceremony of transporting the body to this church took place the following day.