Point 2: the Parish Church of San Vito sul Cesano

Although the exact date of the building of the Parish Church of San Vito is not known, the first reference is found in a notary public deed, dated 5 September 1448, which recorded donations made to the parish. Despite this and since the earliest times, the Church has always enjoyed all parochial rights and has freely exercised them. For example, the pro tempore Parish Priest of San Vito did not have the obligation to intervene at the Cathedral of Fossombrone for the function of Holy Thursday, for the Feast of Corpus Domini and for other similar functions, as instead happened for the other Diocesan Parish Priests.

This represented a certain autonomy, which only the most important churches could claim.

Three branch churches depended on the Parish Church:

1) The Church of Sant’Apollinare, close and opposite to it.

2) The Church of Maria Santissima Addolorata or Pieve Vecchia.

3) The Church of Santa Maria di Loreto, outside the old gate of the town, two hundred paces far away.

Nothing remains of the last church, but according to the known reference points and by making the necessary measurements, it should be possible to identify at least the place where it was built.

In the past, the Parish Church belonged to the Diocese of Fossombrone, but today it belongs to the Diocese of Fano-Fossombrone-Cagli and Pergola.

The new church was built starting from the year 1790 and was finished in 1796 under the Pontificate of Pio VI.

Although not fully completed, it was solemnly consecrated on 28 October 1796 by Monsignor Felice Landi di Cingoli, the Bishop of Fossombrone, the most illustrious, then Bishop of Loreto and Recanati.

He spent two thousand lire and six hundred Roman scudi.

It was rebuilt on the walls of the old Church, but with a new and vague Baroque style design with a single nave, with the addition of the large chapel and semicircle choir; adorned with stuccoes, square columns, capitals and bases with a proportionate and squared cornice along the entire body of the Church. The ceiling is well worked.

The Church, as we see it today, has a length of 21,50 meters and a width of 7 meters.

At the foot of the High Altar, two white stone steps entirely surround the slightly raised space.

To the right of the High Altar there is a Crucifix of the Venerated Company of the Blessed Sacrament, dated back to the eighteenth century.

Behind the Altar there is enough space for the choir, which was never actually built.

On the back wall of the presbytery, further raised by two curved white stone steps, there is a painting with a stucco frame, from Marche region, dating back to the 17th century, and depicting the Blessed Virgin Mary, Saint Biagio and Saint Vito.

Saint Biagio, in an adoring attitude, is represented in bishop’s clothes, with the traditional combs, symbols of his martyrdom. Saint Vito, on his knees, is presenting the Guardian Angel.

On the sides of the High Altar, there are two niches containing wooden confessionals.

In the Church we see four well-proportioned arches, two on each side along the naves, containing the Altar tables.

Observing the main Altar from the point of view of the faithful who looks at the Altar frontally, on the right, immediately after the entrance there is a chapel with the Altar dedicated to S. Esuperanzio Bishop of Cingoli, co-owner of the Church.

The altar table is made of bricks, in the form of an urn and in stucco, like the decorations.

In the center there is a painting representing St. Esuperanzio Bishop of Cingoli, commissioned in Fano by Monsignor Landi, the Bishop of Fossombrone, for the amount of twenty scudi.

The Saint is dressed in Pontifical clothes, with the miter on his head, his eyes turned to the sky, semi-genuflexed with his right hand on his chest to clasp the Crosier and the left hand turned upwards.

With his foot he tramples on a monster of heresy and next to him an angel is represented with an open book in his hand.

Above the Altar a statue of Saint Teresa was placed, donated by a faithful for grace received.

In the second Altar there is the Statue of the Holy Heart of Jesus.

Along the left nave, however, in front of the Altar of S. Esuperanzio there is the baptistery, built in the form of an urn, in stone and gypsum; a stone frame surrounds the painting placed in the upper part of the baptistery and depicting the Baptism of Jesus Christ.

Under the painting there is a small cabinet with concave and well worked walnut wood doors, covered with fur to cover a stone space used to store the Holy Oils and the Baptismal font.

The baptistery is closed by a small stone balustrade.

Continuing on the left, there is a chapel with a niche containing a statue of the Madonna of Fatima, object of veneration by San Vito’s inhabitants.

Continuing, we find another chapel, without the front arch, containing the statue of the Virgin Mary and other paintings, including one of the few painted and restored paintings, depicting the Virgin Mary with Child, Saint Lorenzo martyr and Saint Charles Borromeo, dated back to 1631.

Once, this painting was in the former Church of San Francesco, in the second Altar on the left. In this chapel there is an ancient wooden reproduction of the Holy House of Loreto, decorated with golden decorations, dating back to the first half of the eighteenth century.

Initially, in the front part of the Holy House, above the roof, there was a small statue in painted wood, depicting the Virgin Mary with Child in her arms. Later, it was stolen and replaced by a ceramic statue.

In the last arch on the left, near the Altar, there is a painting dedicated to Sant’Antonio Abate, much venerated by San Vito’s inhabitants.

Frescoes from the 16th century, realized by the painter and architect Pietro Paolo Agabiti, were conserved on the walls. He was born around 1470 in Sassoferrato and died around 1540 in Cupramontana. His works were also found in Cingoli, Sassoferrato, in the Church of S. Croce in Jesi and all over Marche region. These frescoes have been restored and are now in excellent conditions.

In the past, they were kept in the Temple of the SS. Sacrament.

Along the church there are the fourteen stations of the Via Crucis in miniated paper squares with golden wooden frames and crosses, while the twelve crosses necessary for the Sacred Function of Consecration are arranged all around the Church in the pillars made of yellow Siena marble with white background.

In the Parish church of San Vito there are seven doors, the largest one is the main entrance and is located at the end of the central nave on the other side of the main Altar. This door is entirely opened during processions; on all other occasions only the two lowest parties are open.

Two other doors are located in the middle of the Church, one opposite the other. One of them remains located between the Altar of Saint Esuperanzio and the Holy Heart.

The door opposite this one was the entrance of the Hospital Chapel, which no longer exists.

In the Presbytery there are two other doors in fir wood located under the Orchestras.

The left door leads to the sacristy.

Along the entire perimeter, above the columns, capitals and the stuccos, the church, on the top, is surrounded by its proportionate cornice, on which one can walk all around.

There are seven large square windows with stained glass windows.

The window above the main door has been closed with bricks since a long time because the impetuous wind in the year 1806 broke almost all the glass.

The other six windows are above the four chapel arches and above the two orchestras.

The periodical "La Nostra Valle"

Point 3: the periodical “La Nostra Valle”

This periodical was created by the parish priest of San Vito sul Cesano, Don Fauno Binotti, born in 1925 who remained parish priest since 1948. He managed to propagate the periodical all over Italy and a bit all over the world, despite coming from this tiny edge of the countryside.

Go to point 3