From the second half of the 16th century, it has a single nave with a small crypt. Restoration work on the Church of Santa Croce conducted in the 1590s brought to light on the back wall a fresco, attributed to the early production of Giovanni Battista Lombardelli (ca. 1537 – 1592), a painter from the Marche region active from 1574 in Ostra Vetere and Serra de’ Conti, where he stayed for a few years before moving to Perugia, Rome and Loreto, recalled by various commissions.
...The side pilasters painted with two false niches depict the prophets David and Isaiah (?), who introduce the main scene dedicated to the Legend of the True Cross. In the centre is represented the Cross raised on Golgotha after its discovery by Empress Helena, at the bottom the miracle of the young man resurrected from the Holy. Cross. Above the composition is a cymatium with Christ Crucified and angels holding the symbols of the passion. On the right wall there is a group of frescoes attributed to Pier Paolo Agabiti, a painter and architect native of Sassoferrato, whose presence in Serra De’ Conti is documented in the second decade of the 16th century. The work was originally located in the former medieval municipal prisons and was then moved, in recent times, to the city council chamber (in the old building of Palazzo Palazzi). The work is divided into three panels: the central one depicts a Madonna enthroned with Child; on the sides are Blessed Gherardo, patron saint of Serra De’ Conti, and a figure of a saint, perhaps attributable to San Fortunato. The left panel depicts a rampant lion with a banner containing the sixteenth-century emblem of the municipality, while the right panel features an allegorical representation of Justice.
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