The imposing fortress church of Santa Maria, a place of devotion and mystery
Looking at Vasto from its beach, you will immediately notice an imposing bell tower that stands majestically over the entire medieval village, observing you from the hill. At its feet, the large church that dominates every other building. It is the Church of Santa Maria Maggiore, included in the List of monumental buildings in Italy and a pride of the city.
Once you climb to the village, from Corso, you can take Via Santa Maria. Once you reach the square of the same name, instead of the solemn facade you had imagined, you will find the silhouette of a modest building with a small portal at the top of a few steps waiting for you.
Once you enter through the gate, you will find yourself in a small vestibule at the base of the right aisle. Enter the interior of the temple, and the grand central nave will open up in all its neoclassical splendor. Only then will you understand that, on the outside, its silhouette was hidden by the immense bell tower placed right where the facade should have been.
The Collegiate Church of Santa Maria Maggiore is a concentration of mystery. It was built on the walls of a powerful fortress, called the “Battaglia,” which incorporated the nearby church of Sant’Eleuterio, known to have existed since the Carolingian period. In the early 15th century, it was the cradle of the Confraternity of the Gonfalone, of penitential inspiration.
In the chapel at the end of the right aisle, it preserves the relic of the Holy Thorn donated by Francesco Ferdinando d’Avalos. Popular legend has it that the thorn blossoms every year when it is carried in procession on the Friday before Palm Sunday through the streets of the city.
To Marquis Cesare Michelangelo, who donated paintings by Veronese and the school of Titian to the church, now in the left aisle, the gift of the relics of San Cesario is instead due. The martyr’s skeleton is in a glass case in the crypt below the presbytery. Legend, in this case, has it that the saint was laid in a supine position and that he rises a few degrees every time an earthquake is imminent. When he sits up, it will announce the collapse of the church.
At the beginning of the nineteenth century, the church was deprived of the parish and the chapter, which it regained after over a century. Despite this, in the nineteenth century, it was maintained and expanded thanks to the devotion of the d’Avalos, the confraternities, and the Masonic brotherhood whose symbols are found in the tomb of Count Venceslao Mayo at the base of the right aisle.
