San Sebastiano Oratory

The San Sebastiano Oratory is perhaps the building in Forlì that best expresses the culture of Melozzo’s matrix. It was built following the model of Pace Bombace (1440-1500), architect and “ricamadore” (embroiderer). Pace, an artist who belonged to the “brigade of Melozzo”, elaborated an architectural model and he began to work on it around 1500, as Novacula reveals and Pace’s will confirms. The works were completed in April 1502, two years after the Bombace’s death, as testified by an inscription placed in the apsidal vault: “Io Ieronimo de Ginoco fece fare adi primo d’aprilo 1502” (“I, Ieronimo de Ginoco, made it for the first day of April 1502”). The oratory presents a main body with a Greek cross and an atrium surmounted by a dome, with the exterior in brick. The interior appearance is characterized by the dichromy of the light plaster and the brick decorations that overlap the structural elements. The beautiful plastic ornamentation has been attributed to the Ravenna architect Bernardino Guiritti. The pre-existing Gothic structure, that is partly visible here, has caused a displacement of the entrance from the central body, with an irregular joint of the crowning drum. Inside there are fragments of a frescoed decoration. Once seat of the confraternity of the Battuti Bianchi, the building was carefully restored between 1978 and 1982 and it is now used for temporary exhibitions.