Saturday, August 22, Rimini is preparing to welcome Pope Leo XIV, in an appointment that will bring to the city the faithful and the curious from every corner of Italy and beyond. But the weekend of the pontiff’s visit can also become an opportunity to explore an artistic heritage that Romagna has safeguarded for centuries.
Five stops between Rimini, Ravenna, Cesena, Forlì and Brisighella, where art, faith and history intertwine in absolute masterworks, from the Italian Renaissance to Byzantine mosaics, up to the Marian images most venerated in the territory. An itinerary perfect to build around the day of the meeting with the Pontiff, for those who want to join the spiritual moment with a broader cultural discovery.
Rimini: Piero della Francesca in the Malatesta Temple
The starting point cannot be anything other than Rimini itself, where the Malatesta Temple, designed by Leon Battista Alberti as a dynastic temple of the Malatesta family, houses one of the peaks of Italian Renaissance: the fresco by Piero della Francesca with Sigismondo Pandolfo Malatesta kneeling in prayer before Saint Sigismondo. Perspective and light blend in an image that is both an act of devotion and a declaration of power.
In the apse, to complete the visit, the Giotto’s Crucifix, a gilded panel from the early 14th century. However, pay attention to the dates: the temple remains open on Friday, August 21, and Sunday, August 23, but will be closed on Saturday, August 22, when it will host the meeting between the Pope and the vulnerable.
Forlì: the prodigy of the Madonna del Fuoco
In Forlì, in the Cathedral of Santa Croce, the Madonna del Fuoco is venerated: a color woodcut on paper, among the oldest to have reached us, linked to a nearly legendary episode. In the night between the 4th and 5th of February 1428 the image would have survived a fire intact, a “prodigy” that has since made it the symbol of the city and its diocese.
Ravenna: the Byzantine gold of San Vitale
Less than an hour from Rimini, Ravenna offers a leap back fifteen centuries. In the Basilica of San Vitale, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, the mosaics of the apse tell the apex of Byzantine art in the West: the famous processions of Justinian and Theodora, wrapped in a riot of gold and color, transform the visit into an almost hypnotic experience. It is one of those places that explains, better than a thousand words, why Romagna has always been a crossroads of cultures and spiritualities.
Cesena: the Madonna del Popolo
Continuing toward the south, the Cathedral of Cesena houses the Madonna del Popolo, one of the Marian images dearest to local devotion. The Baroque chapel that welcomes it, with the cupola frescoed by Corrado Giaquinto, is a small jewel of marbles and light that deserves a quiet pause, away from the coast’s more touristy rhythms.
Brisighella: the Madonna delle Grazie between history and legend
Closing the itinerary is Brisighella, a hill town among the most beautiful in Italy, where in the Collegiata di San Michele Arcangelo lies the Madonna delle Grazie, a painting from 1410. Its story intertwines with a Marian apparition from the early fifteenth century and with the almost novel-like tale of three panels painted after the vision and dispersed among France, Portugal and, indeed, this corner of Romagna, where a local family kept it until entrusting it to the village church.
