Attributed to Pietro Fiorini, the church was built starting in 1575 and consecrated in 1588. Attached to the Dominican Convent, it features a simple facade on via Sant’Isaia, perfectly integrated into the urban fabric thanks to the portico continuing from the neighboring buildings. The lavish and spectacular interior appearance is due to a “modernization” of the ornamental and pictorial decoration carried out around the mid-18th century by the “quadraturist” Pietro Scandellari and artists Nicola Bertuzzi and Tertulliano Taroni.
From the same period dates the transformation of the serlianas and the 16th-century oculi in the central elevation into large rectangular windows. In 1799, following the suppression of religious orders decreed by the Napoleonic government, the Church of San Mattia was separated from the convent, deconsecrated, and converted into a warehouse.
The restoration, begun in 1981 and completed in 1994 wholly funded by the Ministry for Cultural Heritage and Activities, uncovered what remained of the stuccoes and frescoes. Entrusted to the Regional Directorate for Cultural and Landscape Heritage of Emilia Romagna by the State Property Agency, the Church of San Mattia has become a venue for exhibitions, meetings, and conferences dedicated to architecture, urban planning, design, and the study of the historical-artistic-landscape heritage of the Emilia-Romagna region.
