Church of San Giuseppe Lavoratore – Cesanella

The Church of San Giuseppe Lavoratore began in 1967 based on a design by Senigallia architect and professor Gabriele Bonazza. Despite its artistic and decorative simplicity, the church, with a circular plan, has some elements that must be taken extremely into consideration.

For example, starting on the right of the pulpit, the image of Our Lady of the Rosary, who is the protector of the entire community. And then, above all, the interventions by the Senigallian artist Andrea Ippoliti, which concern the portal on the left of the entrance, the creation of the new pulpit and the beautiful crucifix behind the high altar.

The portal, made of cast bronze, features images of the Annunciation: then the Angel and the Virgin, where above their images are the words ‘Hail or Mary, full of grace’, but with the Greek wording, namely ‘Chaire Maria kecharitomene’.

On the front of the ambo, however, we find what are the symbols of the Tetramorph, that is, the symbols of the four evangelists. And these symbols hold in the center an open book where are reported some of the words of the incipit of the Gospel of St. John, written both with the ancient Greek script and with the Italian translation: ‘And the Word became flesh’.

Finally, behind the main altar, a beautiful crucifix, where in reality the cross seems shaped by the wind. This wind which is actually a proper symbol of the spirit and a symbol of salvation and resurrection. And from the portal itself on the left, passing through the ambo, which almost looks like the bow of a moving ship, to then arrive at the cross, covered with a gold leaf, the theme of the wind is the theme that with the cross itself takes us from death to resurrection. And this cross, therefore, which is not only a symbol of torture and death, but is a symbol of salvation and resurrection.

As a final aspect to note inside this circular church, the baptismal font, which today is located immediately to the left of the entrance portal, but was originally actually a baptismal font, not a baptismal font, because there was a desire to remember the path that neophytes who entered in Jesus’ time took, indeed, descended into the apse font, in memory of the descent into the Jordan River, to immerse oneself completely in the waters of the river, in this case, of the basin, albeit symbolically.

I conclude by saying that the word Baptism itself derives from a term that in the ancient Greek language, ‘baptizo’, a Greek verb, means precisely ‘I immerse’, the total immersion in the life and in the greatness of the Christian life.