The building is located inside the wall surrounding the oldest part of Orciano, not far from the arch that gives access to the "castle."
Its construction was commissioned by Giovanni Della Rovere, it is part of an intense work of improvement and promotion of the new lands acquired by the lord Della Rovere in 1474.
The work was entrusted to the Florentine architect Baccio Pontelli in the last two decades of the '400 (they should be considered as ended in 1492).
The Boglioni family, who was from Fano and enjoyed the right of giuspatronato (in Latin "jus patronatus", a privilege and duty granted to a family regarding the altar of a church, involving the duty to protect and maintain the altar) of some churches of Orciano, and the chivalric Order of Malta whose symbols are clearly visible inside the building tcontributed to the building costs.
The façade is incomplete: the brick facing is marked by four pilasters (that is, half-pillars against the wall) and the façade by three splayed oculi that match the interior space division.
The entrance portal to the Church of S. Maria Novella, made of stone (15th century), has the form of a tabernacle with a stem resting on two elegant fluted columns with Corinthian capitals placed on tall pedestals.
Local tradition likes to attribute the design to the great artist from Urbino Raffaello Sanzio, the most direct news refer to some architectures of the Montefeltro's area cities, especially the portal of the church of San Domenico and some decorative elements of the Ducal Palace, this is why Ambrogio Barocci was mentioned, also for the portal of the Orciano Church. The decoration carved in bas-reliefs meanders through different motifs: from the door frame with snailed braids, the acanthus running along the frieze, the rosettes decorating the coffers, the cornucopias, shields, shells, dolphins and tridents adorning this fine work of art made even more amazing by the recent restoration.
Past the gate, you enter into an architectural, clear and harmonius space win an indubitable Brunelleschi's taste, emphasized by the game of open and blind oculi and the gray stone creases running throughout the building area.
The church has a central plan, four slender Tuscan columns supporting the dome enriched with the lantern and the base (that is, the outer covering of the dome itself).
The internal division into three naves ends in the two side chapels and in the apse. Barrel vaulted, the latter and the right chapel dedicated to Our Lady of Loreto, are adorned with fine stucco works attributed to Federico Brandani, well-known plasterer from Urbino very active in the duchy of Della Rovere family, during the second half of 1500. Doubts about paternity are due to a certain rigidity in framing the spaces reserved for the frescoes (never executed), they make think of a lesser follower. But the angels and virtues are definitely related to the artist from Urbino who probably was forced laminating an already established architectural environment and therefore not freely interpreted according to his artistic feeling.
In the chapel on the left is inserted the stem of Malatesta family tower, which - incorporated in the building - places in its eastern corner.
At the center of the floor stand out the cross of the chivalry order financed it, the peculiar eight-pointed star; bringing the look on top of the circular dome is clearly visible a tile depicting the rose, a symbol of unity in the multiplicity of the various petals and finally, the lotus flower with a geometric-shape trefoil, wich is hollowed out in the apse right pillar.