Ascoli Piceno Italy

Church of San Gregorio Magno

It rises up in the square having the same name, behind the Townhall. It is a small church which originates from the Corinthian transformation of an Roman temple, of late Hellenistic art. It was devoted to the goddess Vesta, so much so that still today it is called by the same name. Formerly in prostyle tetrastyle, during the late medieval period the front colonnade was closed up by a wall in travertine, leaving two entrances opened: the main central entrance with a falcated arch and the minor side entrance with a rectangular lighting. Of the ancient portico are visible two fluted Corinthian columns, of esteemed workmanship, which support a part of the architrave. Also very vell-preserved is the Roman cell, whose boundery walls in opus reticulatum, covered in travertinetesserae, have been preserved up to the trabeations. The traces of the affrescoes from 1300 to 1400 are of great interest. Attached to the church can be found the remains of an ancient wall, where once could be seen small square multicoloured tesserae and fragments of paintings that tradition relates belonged to the houses of the Vestals. The wall has to be the remains from the work of restoration of the Italic town into terraces, and also because along this declivity passed the connecting-road of the Pelasgic slopes to the city plane.

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