Oratorio di San Giovanni Battista

The oratory is the seat of the confraternity of San Giovanni, founded in the 14th century to care for the sick and pilgrims. From outside it looks like any church, with a façade rebuilt in the 20th century; inside, one of Urbino's loveliest surprises awaits you.

In 1416 the brothers Lorenzo and Jacopo Salimbeni, painters from San Severino Marche, covered the walls with a great fresco cycle. On the altar wall is the Crucifixion, crowded with soldiers, horsemen and weeping women; on the right wall run the stories of St John the Baptist, from his birth to the baptism of Christ in the Jordan.

This is International Gothic painting: vivid colours, fashionable contemporary dress, expressive faces, small details of everyday life. Look at the faces in the crowd around the Baptist and the landscapes made of rocks and delicate trees. The wooden ceiling, shaped like an upturned ship's hull, completes the hall.

A few steps away, on the same Via Barocci, is the Oratorio di San Giuseppe, with a large life-size stucco nativity scene from the 16th century. The two oratories can be visited in half an hour and are five minutes from the Palazzo Ducale.