HISTORICAL NOTES: architecture
The church of Santa Maria Assunta is today the center of the spiritual life of Filottrano and preserves the memory of many religious events that occurred in the city, by the will of the whole community of the faithful. For this reason, being the church that oversees the whole Municipality, it is also called "Prepositura" and its parish priest "Prevosto". It is also called "Pieve" as it was built outside the city walls.
The first Christian temple, as handed down by local sources, was built with the formation of the urban core: in Gothic style it stood near the Porta Cappuccina or Arco Perozzi (located in front of the present church). Having become unsafe and not very roomy, Cardinal Antonio Bichi, thanks to the concrete interest of the different families of the Gentiloni nobles, entrusted the task to the Roman architect Matteo de 'Rossi (+1695) for the construction of a new temple, completed in 1679 .
The church externally has classical elements and a rigorous formal balance that creates chiaroscuro contrasts. The façade was made of exposed red brick, according to the model used in the Marche region in the late seventeenth century. Matteo de ’Rossi accentuated the plastic elements in the central part of the building, gathering them around the portal and the central window.
INDOOR
The interior has a single nave: the central part widens into an elliptical space covered with a dome, while the remaining parts have a lunette vault; the transept is flanked by two side chapels and eleven large windows that illuminate the entire environment. The church was enriched with decorative elements on the walls with grotesques and ornamental motifs. The sober decoration was carried out with soft pastel colors to make the golden reliefs stand out even more. The stucco frames that frame the frescoes, at the top of the windows and on the top of the triumphal arch, are in Baroque style. The decorative apparatus of some chapels has never been retouched and is in excellent condition. The wall paintings of the nave and vaults above the window were made before 1776. The neoclassical appearance of the decorations is due to the commission of don Sebastiano Ghirardelli, as reported in the epigraph at the back of the church. On the opposite side of the nave, you can see the epigraph relating to the dedication of this church to Santa Maria Assunta, June 14, 1735.

Headquarters of the Provost outside of the city’s walls. Inside there are paintings by Ernst Van Schayck, a Flemish painter of the seventeenth century.