It is one of the most interesting Medieval churches in Italy, where the Romanesque style merges with the Byzantine, evident in the plant and in many decorations. In scenic location, at the top of the Guasco Hill, already it occupied by the Acropolis of the Dorian city, from where it dominates the entire city of Ancona and its Gulf. As early as the third century BC It was present near a temple dedicated to Aphrodite, as determined by the remains found in the excavations of 1948. The Classical temple was built in the sixth century an early Christian basilica dedicated to St. Lawrence, of which there are traces at the entrance of the Crypt of the Protectors. Between the late tenth and early eleventh century, the Church became the new Cathedral of the city; other expansion work from the first half of the thirteenth century, were related to the Greek cross plant. In the mid-thirteenth century was built the porch, with the monumental lions that have become one of the symbols of the city. It was in the fifteenth century that the Cathedral acquired its present appearance. In the Chapel of the Sacrament they worked major Renaissance artists such as Piero della Francesca ("Marriage of the Virgin") and Giovanni Dalmata (Monument to Girolamo Ginelli). In the seventeenth century Luigi Vanvitelli designed the monumental shrine where they laid the miraculous image of the Madonna del Duomo. The facade, tripartite, is preceded by a wide staircase, above which rises the thirteenth-century Romanesque portico. Under the arch are four reliefs represented the Evangelists. The portal, attributed to Giorgio da Como (1228), is in Romanesque-Gothic style, in white Conero stone and red Verona marble. The dome is one of the oldest in Italy: ogival with twelve-sided drum, was raised in the thirteenth century. The three interior naves are divided by Roman columns reuse ending on Byzantine capitals. On the main altar is placed the blade by Ercole Fava, depicting the "Resurrection of Christ".