The Malatesta Temple is an authentic jewel of the Italian Renaissance, commissioned by Sigismondo Malatesta around the middle of the 15th century to perpetuate his family’s and his own glory.
Leon Battista Alberti’s first architectural work, begun in 1447, even though it was never finished, it remains a great manifesto of Renaissance architecture.
Alberti transformed the pre-existing church of San Francesco into a work of shocking novelty. The reference to the classical style is evident in Alberti’s intervention: the great arch of the façade, inspired by the Arch of Augustus and bearing, on the frieze, the Latin inscription ‘Sigimundus Pandulfus Malatesta Pan F,V. Fecit Anno Gratiae MCCCCL”; the arches on the sides recalling the Tiberius Bridge; the 7 sarcophagi honouring the memories of illustrious poets, philosophers, scientists and distinguished citizens of Rimini, which are placed in each of them; the strongly plastic solution of the volumes constitute the typological characteristics of the new spatial concept of Humanism.
Particularly noteworthy are the Chapel of the Angels (or of Isotta), which contains the sepulchral ark of Sigismondo’s wife, Isotta, and Giotto’s Crucifix, painted on a panel; Piero della Francesca’s fresco, painted in 1451 and depicting Sigismondo Pandolfo Malatesta genuflecting before St Sigismondo; the tomb of Sigismondo himself, located to the right of the entrance; the Arch of the Ancestors, where Sigismondo wanted to place the bones of his ancestors and descendants; a large canvas by Vasari depicting St Francis receiving the stigmata.