IN ASCOLI

Ascoli is a jewel of early Renaissance and retains a lot of interesting churches, buildings and one of the nicest piazzas (Piazza del Popolo) you can see in Italy.
After the XVIth century however Ascoli entered a long period of decadence.
The popes ruled Ascoli through a cardinal and so the town with a few papal coats of arms has an impressive number of coats of arms of the cardinals to whom its administration was delegated (so called Cardinal (de)Legato).
Today it is a rich and well kept town, with very good restaurants.

S. Emidio alle Grotte

The only important church of the XVIII century in Ascoli is however very interesting. Like the temples of Petra in Jordan, this church comes out of the rock with an impressive impact.
The church is built on the catacombs of early Christian worshippers and it reminds us of S. Maria della Pace by Pietro da Cortona in Rome. The reason for building it was the protection of S. Emidio during an earthquake in 1703 and it was completed in 1721.
During this long period the Pope was Clemens XI (Giovanni Francesco Albani), a man of deep culture and a protector of the arts. 

The Coats of Arms

Two large coats of arms play a major role in the overall design of the façade. The coat of arms of the cardinal (picture above right), although put at a lower, subordinate level has nothing to envy in the papal one. Overall I believe that the artist did a better job on this one!

Angels

Very often the coat of arms of the Pope hosts the head of a young angel (a Putto) in the upper part. Here this theme is developed and we see two children playing with a result of great freshness and again overall I prefer the putti of the cardinal's coat of arms.

TORNA ALLA PAGINA DEGLI STEMMI PAPALI