The Collegiate Church

The Collegiate Church of Mercatello sul Metauro, dedicated to Saints Peter and Paul the Apostles, overlooks Piazza Garibaldi, the main square in the town. Originally Romanesque, it was rebuilt in 1363, preserving the previous structure, albeit with the addition of Gothic elements. The Romanesque structure, however, underwent a radical and definitive transformation between the end of the 17th century and 1730.
The current façade, dated 1927, is in Romanesque style, based on a design by the Mercatello architect Mario Egidi De Angelis.

The bell tower, which replaces the original bell tower demolished in 1682, is missing its spire, which collapsed in the earthquake of 1781. It has four bells, cast with the bronze of the old ones.
The interior has three naves with a dome above the transept and an apse flanked by two chapels: on the right the one dedicated to the Blessed Sacrament, on the left to the Madonna delle Grazie. This arrangement dates back to the end of the seventeenth century and early decades of the eighteenth century.

To the right of the Hall of the Golden Lion is the so-called “Greek Room”, the room of Count Antonio II, frescoed with episodes of Greek history and mythology (1585), while to the left is the so-called “Roman Room”, the countess’s room. The west wing of the palace is characterized by the so-called “Flight of rooms”, where the rooms placed in succession and separated by a simple door, allow you to cross at a glance all 150 meters of length with its 11 rooms.

After crossing the west wing, you reach the second internal courtyard, and since this is the oldest part, it is characterized by thick walls, “wolf mouth” windows, narrow openings, the atrium with the well. In this service courtyard, next to the cistern, a vaulted walkway opens up that leads to the ancient castle, where the prisons were, to the “porta succursi”. THE BRANCALEONI CIVIC MUSEUM, housed inside the Castle, is composed of different sections: Local Customs and Traditions, Speleology, Geo-Paleontology, Ornithology, Numismatics and Archaeology.