Basilica della Misericordia

Small, cozy but very beautiful. It looks like a small museum.

Small Vanvitellian masterpiece with a complex plan. The exterior, in brick, has a very elegant, Borrominian inspiration. The liturgical hall culminates in the solemn circular presbytery, equipped with a dome, and is surrounded by an ambulatory that allows access to the sacristy and to the other spaces of the sanctuary.

Spectacular. One of the most beautiful churches visited by me. Not large inside but stands out and impresses with its internal majesty. Gloomy, gloomy, mysterious but also sumptuous. A must see! To hear the organs playing from time to time.

At the first passage it was closed. We promised ourselves to spend the last day of our vacation and we did. Glad to have visited it! Small basilica surrounded by an ambulatory, very well decorated and with beautiful frescoes. To be seen. Of this trip, in the province of Macerata, one of the most beautiful churches seen .... visiting hours 8.30-12.00 / 16.00-18.00

The Basilica of Mercy in Macerata. In 1447 a terrible plague struck the territory of Macerata. The Municipality then decided to build a votive shrine to the Madonna in just one day. After fifty years this was enlarged into the oratory and inside it was placed a canvas by Anonymous from the beginning of the sixteenth century, which seems to have been hung on the wall of the bishop's garden. The painting is still today the altarpiece of the basilica. Some attribute the work to the Venetian artist Antonio Solario known as the Zingaro. The canvas depicts the Virgin Mary flanked, on the left, by San Giuliano patron saint of Macerata and by Sant'Andrea apostolo and, on the right, by two patron saints against plague epidemics: San Rocco and San Sebastiano. Little angels hold Mary's mantle open and, under it, the faithful flock to venerate and invoke her. In the first half of the eighteenth century, the works for the expansion and embellishment of the primitive oratory were carried out on a design by Luigi Vanvitelli, thanks to the prodigal intervention of the Macerata noble Gualtiero Marefoschi, whose family crest, a dolphin in the open sea, it is visible in the center of the floor in the entrance hall of the basilica. The church was gradually transformed into a precious casket, rich in polychrome marbles, golds, silvers, paintings on the walls and frescoes on the ceiling, decorated glass, wrought iron gates and a sculpted bronze door, in which mention is made of the history of the building. Among the episodes represented, the traditional Festa delle Canestrelle is also remembered, celebrated on September 1st of each year, when the Maceratesi, perpetuating an ancient pagan ritual in honor of the goddess Cybele, offer the Madonna in wicker baskets a part of the harvested grain during the year.