In the past where the present Cathedral of Massa stands today on Via Dante Alighieri there was a Franciscan church built in the mid-15th century at the behest of Taddea Pico Malaspina. Because of the damage the church suffered around 1600, the sanctuary was rebuilt to the design of the Cybo family, which endowed the structure with 17th-century decorations. The reconstruction work was entrusted to the architects Giovanni Francesco Bergamini and his son Alessandro, who redesigned and furnished the area of the presbytery, creating a high altar, conceived as a scenic backdrop. The men also created two altars in the transept, emplacement of the canvases depicting theImmaculate Conception and the Trinity in glory and saints, by Luigi Garzi, and also linked to the transept is the 1687 transformation of the new Cybo-Malaspina chapel located behind the altar into the sumptuous family mausoleum.
Later Duke Alberico II decided to transform the new chapel, located behind the right altar of the transept, into the mausoleum of his family. The project initially entrusted to architect Giovanni Francesco Bergamini then passed to architect Domenico Martinelli, in whom inspired by the more modern styles of Rome, he decided to transform the Cybo chapel into a Baroque work by designing doors and tribunes with a variety of polychrome marbles and an altar intended for a fresco of the Madonna and Child by Pinturicchio previously located in the Cybo chapel of the basilica of Santa Maria del Popolo in Rome. The choice of a Baroque style closer to the Roman style for the Cybo chapel introduced modern elements to the Duchy of Massa that became a model for future projects in the area while also influencing sacred architecture in the region.
A marble altarpiece, carved in 1697 by brothers Andrea and Tommaso Lazzoni of Carrara, was placed on the right altar of the transept, commissioned by Cardinal Alderano and taken from the old, now destroyed church of San Pietro. In Aranci Square
In addition to the Cybo chapel, the cathedral preserves the family crypt, located beneath the cathedral. The burial ground in fact preserves the remains of Alberico I and several members of the family, as well as funerary monuments from the 1500s related to Lorenzo Cybo and Eleonora Malaspina. Later, in 1822 the church was consecrated as a cathedral and the crypt was used for the remains of the bishops of Massa.
As soon as you enter the cathedral you can access the baptistery, where there is a 15th-century baptismal font, attributed to the Riccomanni workshop and also coming, like the marble ancon, from the demolished church of San Pietro. The interior features several marble and pictorial works including: theImmaculate Conception with Saints Gregory the Great, Anselm, Augustine and Jerome, dated 1684 by Luigi Garzi, who is also the author of the Trinity adored by Saints John the Baptist, John the Evangelist, Peter and Andrew, and then again the 17th-century Adoration of the Magi by Giacomo Grandi and a 17th-century painting by the Roman School of Pietro da Cortona depicting the Madonna and Child between Saints Margaret of Cortona, Vincent Ferrer, Mary Magdalene de’ Pazzi and Francis Solano. The cathedral has a nave with three bays and six altars, a transept surmounted by a cross vault, and a presbytery. On the right side of the nave is the Chapel of the Stigmata while at the transept, there is the Chapel of the Blessed Sacrament.
Both chapels, the crypt and the Cybo Chapel contribute to the historical and religious richness of Massa Cathedral, making it a place of worship and an important landmark for the Catholic community in the locality.