FANO, DIOCESE OF. - In the province of Pesaro. The ancient Fanum Fortunae rises on the Adriatic coast at the point where the Via Flaminia reaches the sea and dominates the fertile valley of the Metauro, which empties into the sea about 3 km south of the city. The diocese is immediately subject [to the Holy See]; it has an area of 240 sq km with a population of 60,560 inhabitants, all Catholic, distributed in 47 parishes served by 84 diocesan priests and 45 regulars (1949). Besides the diocesan Seminary, since 1911 it has had the regional Seminary of all the Marches, for which Pius XI built a new seat in 1924 along the Via Flaminia. There all the clerics of the region (about 500) complete their lyceum and theological studies, with the exception of certain larger dioceses such as Fermo, Ascoli, and Camerino. It has important institutes: the College of St. Archangel of the Brothers of the Christian Schools, the Hermitage of Mantegiove of the Camaldolese Monks, the Capuchin studentate at St. Paterniano, the Opera don Orione, etc.
The ancient modest center, which arose around the pre-Roman temple in an important strategic position, is mentioned for the first time by Caesar, who in 49 B.C. occupied it after crossing the Rubicon. Not far from Fano, in 207 B.C., the famous battle of the Metauro had taken place, which was decisive in the Punic Wars and where Hasdrubal met his death. The city was a municipium, and a colony of veterans was settled there by Augustus, among whom the land was distributed (colonia Iulia Fanestris). Augustus surrounded it with walls, still largely preserved, and the municipium, as a sign of gratitude, erected a three-arched arch in honor of the prince on the gate facing Rome, an arch still well preserved and which was modified in the time of Constantine. Vitruvius erected at Fano a basilica which he describes in his De architectura.
After the fall of the Western Empire, Fano was part of the maritime pentapolis, was destroyed by the Goths in 338 and restored by Belisarius. The donations of Pepin and Charlemagne gave it to the Church (755-74), under which the city enjoyed broad autonomy; it was a free commune with its own statutes and magistracies and extended its dominion into the neighboring countryside, as far as toward Fossombrone, amid frequent disputes and wars both against its neighbors and between the powerful Guelph and Ghibelline families (among which Dante recalls the "del Cassero" and the "da Carignano"). In 1335 the Pope appointed the Malatesta as vicars of Fano, who were its lords until 1463, when the people of Fano, besieged by the Pope's troops, rebelled against Sigismondo Malatesta and raised the banner of Ecclesiastical Liberty, which entailed the right to have in the future only ecclesiastics as annual governors, who were therefore unable to create a hereditary lordship. Fano shared in the vicissitudes of the other States of the Church and on Sept. 12, 1860, with the entry of the Piedmontese troops, was incorporated into the Kingdom of Italy. In the last war it suffered greatly, especially because on Aug. 18, 1944 the Germans, on the eve of their departure, blew up from their foundations all the towers and bell towers of the city that characterized its skyline: among them the beautiful civic tower by Vanvitelli and the Sansovinian bell tower of St. Paterniano.
Christianity must have been fairly widespread at Fano at the time of the Constantinian peace, in which lived the bishop St. Paterniano, patron of the city, who, according to Lanzoni too, not improbably lived in the first half of the 4th century. The tomb of the Saint was along the Via Flaminia a little outside the walls and became the seat of a famous Benedictine abbey. After this was ruined by wars, on July 10, 1551 the body of the patron was transferred to the urban Basilica specially erected, of classical type, where it still rests.
Among the first bishops are remembered Vitale, who in 498 participated in the Roman Synod; St. Eusebius, who subscribed at the Synod of 504 in the time of Pope Gelasius I and is buried in the high altar of the Cathedral; Leo, who was living in 589 and of whom St. Gregory the Great speaks; St. Fortunatus, to whom St. Gregory the Great sent letter 13 of book V, approving the sale of sacred vessels he had made to redeem slaves. He too, with St. Eusebius and St. Ursus, co-patrons of the city, is buried in the Cathedral. Among the bishops worthy of mention are then Cosimo Gheri of Pistoia (d. at 24 years of age in 1537); Pietro Bertano of Modena, a Dominican, who was sent by Paul III as nuncio to Charles V and created cardinal (d. 1558); Ippolito Capilupi, of Mantua, who participated in the Council of Trent in 1563 (d. 1580); Angelo Ranuzzi, of Bologna, who was nuncio to Louis XIV and then cardinal (d. 1689); Gabriele Severoli, of Faenza, who was nuncio in Vienna (d. 1808). At Fano Pope Clement VIII Aldobrandini was born, on Feb. 24, 1536.
Noteworthy from the historical-artistic point of view are especially the Cathedral, with the adjoining episcopium, dedicated to the Assumption and consecrated in 1111, attributed to Rainerio, in early Romanesque style with ancient fragments and paintings by Domenichino, Van Dyck, etc.; St. Maria Nuova of the Friars Minor, with splendid paintings by Perugino and Giovanni Santi; the fourteenth-century churches of St. Dominic, with frescoes by Ottaviano Nelli da Gubbio, and of St. Augustine, ruined by the last war, with the famous Guardian Angel by Guercino, which inspired the poem of the same name by Robert Browning; the majestic classical basilica of St. Paterniano, with the Michelangelesque door and the bell tower by Sansovino, now under reconstruction; St. Peter in Valle, in rich and exemplary Baroque style with paintings by Reni. Other precious works of art taken from the churches are preserved in the civic Museum of the Malatesta court, which is entered through the arch of Ecclesiastical Liberty beside the majestic Palazzo della Ragione erected in 1290. In various churches of the diocese as well, valuable works of art are admired. - See plates LXVIII-IX.