50 euro – Third centenary of the death of Pope Clement XI

The 50 euro gold coin is dedicated to the third centenary of the death of Pope Clement XI. Artist Antonella Napolione depicts the pope while blessing; below, two putti hold the coat of arms of the noble Albani family, which depicts an eight-pointed star and a three-peaked mountain. Giovanni Francesco Albani was born in Urbino in 1649 and died in 1721. He was elected pope in 1700 at the young age of 51 years. A cultured man and a great lover of art, he dedicated himself above all to cultural policy from which Urbino and the city of Rome drew immense benefit. With the papal bull “Comissi nobis” of 1708, Clement XI made the feast of the Immaculate Conception of Mary universal.