Poggio Mirteto,1738, the tradition that on a beautiful summer afternoon Lucia Del Bufalo was praying her rosary in the courtyard of her house,when the image of the Madonna and Child appeared. From that day there was a great rush of people from the surrounding area
Sanctuary of Madonna della Misericordia
Position
Via Provinciale Stazione, 34
02047 Misericordia
Poggio Mirteto (RI)
Opening hours
Messe festive:
8,00:10,00 – 11,30:19,00 (ora solare alle 17,30)
Messe feriali
7,30 e ore 19 (ora solare alle 17,30) – prefestiva ore 19 (ora solare alle 17,30)
Poggio Mirteto,1738, the tradition that on a beautiful summer afternoon Lucia Del Bufalo was praying her rosary in the courtyard of her house,when the image of the Madonna and Child appeared. From that day there was a great rush of people from the surroundings to venerate the sacred image, something that could not fail to arouse the attention of the ecclesiastical authorities.
A regular “authentication” process was therefore initiated, following which the miracle was officially recognized. It was then decided to find a place to keep the miraculous fresco, thus starting a parochial diatribe between Poggio Mirteto and neighboring towns. The dispute was settled with the decision to erect a chapel on the exact site of the miracle, and so it was.
Design and construction were entrusted to architect Angelo Sani in 1741; the church was completed in the main structures in 1748 and consecrated in October of the same year. The exterior structure is very simple but harmonious, enlivened only by the graceful bell tower.
Outside it is very simple but harmonious, lively only by the polite bell. Inside, on the left wall, there is a frescoed deposition and a fresco of the St. Elizabeth Visitation. On the altar wall, in a niche protected by glass, the famous fresco of the miracle, Umbrian school of XV-XVI sec., represents the Madonna and Child with St. Anthony Abbot below. On the altar of the last chapel, oil on canvas depicting the Annunciation of Mary can be noted on the ceiling, and a large fresco depicting the miraculous event of Lucia Del Bufalo in front of the sacred image with some people coming crying and astonished.
Curiosity
L’Opificio settecentesco
Descending on the provincial station ,opposite this ancient church is the 18th-century Opificio of Poggio Mirteto.
The building is locally called “the Factory” because of the length of construction work, which seems to have lasted several decades.
The structure of the building indicates that it was built in the second half of the eighteenth century, essentially to obtain the raw material from which to make silk. This was in fact the time when the secret of how to obtain the highly sought-after and precious fabric, which for millennia had come exclusively from the Celestial Empire, was wrested from China.
The Papal State imposed a monopoly on it and established numerous factory-set factories, of which this one in Poggio Mirteto may be one of the few remaining.
Note the arched openings, currently occluded and replaced by windows, to let light and air into the mulberry leaf beds. A later added forepart with Gothic pointed-arched windows.