Sanctuary of macereto
Encyclopedia
Sanctuary of Macereto is a chapel
in Italy, built between 1528 and 1538 around a smaller 14th-century chapel constructed to hold a miraculous statue of the Madonna. It is located in the Parco Nazionale dei Monti Sibillini, Marche
(Italy).
. One road runs east through Cupi, down the valley to Fiastra
and from there to the eastern coast. The other road follows the spine of the mountain range to Ussita
and from there, to Ascoli Piceno
. At the sanctuary, the roads converge and then plunge west to Visso
.
and, as Giuseppe Cucco points out in Santuari nelle Marche, “the regional situation was different. The final destination was Loreto, whilst the other sanctuaries were stop-overs. Saint Basso in Cupramarittima was the stopping place for pilgrims coming from the south and the Blessed Virgin in Ponte Metauro
in Fano
was the stopping place for those coming from the north.” (Cucco p 25) But these were merely roads that ran along the coast, whereas the interior of the country was networked with “major arteries to Loreto and one should rather talk of a huge number of little roads that would end at Loreto from each valley, each hill and each village.” (Ibid p26)
“Travelling again over some routes, today one can trace, from the less navigable roads, or following the traces that remain in some ancient mountain passes, between the coastal zone and that of the Apennine hinterland, it is possible to find that the cult of the Virgin of Loreto bloomed more quickly just in the towns of the itinerant shepherds, mendicants and merchants who used these routes”(Grimaldi p 81): In particular, one can see many traces of the cult throughout these towns, many of which are in direct reference to Loreto. For instance, on a wall immediately outside the Porta della Santa Maria in Visso it is still possible to see the 15th century sign that reads "Alla Madonna di Macereto et Loreto" . (Fig 2) The many pilgrims and merchants who used this route could have stayed in the hostel of the Santissima Trinita in Visso and then their route would have been indicated as they left Visso for the arduous climb up to the altopiano of Macereto.
In this small area, Visso and Camerino
vied with each other for control of traffic and the local population. Camerino is the older town and its position was better in terms of controlling the huge number of traffic that came through the narrow pass at Muccia
on the Flaminian road. The geography of this route would have been easier for beasts and vehicles. But the Camerinese were also keen to control the routes through to southern Italy and were locked in a seemingly endless and fruitless feud to that end. The castle at Grotagna that came to be called Macereto was often the focus of their fierce and often bloody rivalry and when the intervention of Pope Boniface IX
placed Macereto under the jurisdiction of Visso in 1404 and then finally, in 1521, when “Duke Giovanni Maria Varano organised inspections and an in-depth study on the disagreements between the communities of Appennino, Ussita and Cupi” and a decree was issued that divided the contested land and put the hilltop of Macereto under control of Visso. Vissanis celebrated this event with the commission of the sanctuary.
At more or less the same time, however, in 1259, “the Count Magalotto dei Magolotti sold to Camerino the Fiastra Castle, the Poggia Serra one, half the Appennino Castle together with its annexed territories, people and villages and the rights on the Macereto Castle and its people wherever they should be.” (Ibid p14). A stalemate ensued and the rivalry between the boroughs merely heightened. Neither of these sales was entirely legal, the ownership of this desolate and barren land had never been formally recorded and the feud between the two families was merely passed on to the two rival boroughs. The uncertainties that followed on ownership and border issues were left to the two parties to sort out, which naturally exacerbated an already heated situation.
In 1277 Visso burned down the Camerinese Appennino Castle, which was subsequently rebuilt. Then Camerino destroyed the Castle of Macereto in 1313 with the help of the Ruler of the Dukedom of Spoleto “who was keen to see the rebel borough of Visso brought back under the influence of the Church.” (Venanzangeli p 14). The Castle was rebuilt too.
Bonifacio IX, in an attempt to soothe the disputes made “The Rocca di Macereto a county, naming Bante and Apollonio, the sons of the notary Cataldino Boncompagni, Counts of Macereto.” At the end of the trecento the Boncompagni household left the isolated Castle of Macereto and moved down to Visso, taking an active role in the battles that culminated for them in 1499 when the Camerinese killed Cataldino Boncompagni. After this family tragedy, the Boncompagni family emigrated and sold the title to Visso. This finally put the Castle of Macereto under the official control of the borough of Visso. They were to be linked again when in 1583 Pope Gregory XIII
, from the same Boncompagni family, honoured his familial roots by making Visso a permanent base for the Government.
In 1521, the issued decree ended the disputes over the land, with “the verdict agreed and sworn upon by Sir Venanzio Cistofori, legal authority of Camerino and by Sir Gianpietro Dominici, legal authority of Visso” and a truce was finally reached. In 1522, having set up the new borders with Camerino and achieving domination over the area with a final decisive victory over another rival borough of Nursini in the battle of Pian Ferduto, “Visso was then able to make use of its freedom and new security to realize the long planned project and build, on the highlands of Macereto, a great and artistic sanctuary.” (Venanzangeli p 30)
and The Marche was rarely enforced, allowing these itinerant people to move with comparative freedom . People would come from the rural districts would only see one another at these occasions.
In the Macereto plain, flocks could come and graze without encroaching on each other. This led to the instigation of an annual summer sheep fair
, which continues even to this day. These fairs (fiere) were connected to religious festival
s and originated when people would traditionally travel great distances to a particular place to celebrate a saint
’s day for instance. “The basis of fiere, which lasted several days, was the difficulty and danger of travelling. They originated from the festivals of various saints when the faithful met in some temple or sanctuary: sellers of every type of merchandise would go to these gatherings. The term fiera derives from ferie – giorno di festa (feast-day). Peaking in the 14th-16th centuries, commerce
developed with the rise of the free commune
s. Usually a fiera was given a spacious field outside the town walls with roofing for animals, barracks for the merchants and their merchandise….The altopiano of Macereto was much travelled on account of the road running from the Marche to the Kingdom of Naples
. From then on and with the increasing flow of pilgrims, the fiera assumed great religious importance through the numerous gatherings of people from Umbria and the Marche….The Macereto fairs were particularly useful for those involved with the sheep business.”
The shepherds who travelled from Visso, Ussita and Cupi had originally marked out the roads in this wonderful natural resource, which became the major routes through the mountains. By the trecento the track that ran from Fiastra, through Cupi, past Macereto and then down to Visso had become so established that wheeled vehicles, and the traditional sleds in winter, were able to navigate it without too much trouble. But it was at Macereto that everyone would gather, the Castle that was built there had its origins in this traffic and would have offered a social and cultural hub for travelers from Ussita, as well as for shepherds and inhabitants of the little group of dwellings around the castle. It is without doubt that a small shrine
would have already existed at the spot before the ‘miracle’, tended by the shepherds who would have not been able to get to a town to take part in a Mass
.
There are a hundred and sixty-three officially recognized sanctuaries in The Marche alone, most of which are positioned, not so much where an actual miracle occurred but normally in “areas of particular worship that strengthened with time”. In a part of the world where primitive beliefs were still very much a part of life, the Church had achieved considerable success by tying these ‘pagan’ attitudes with conventional religious practices.
s distributed between the ancient diocese of Camerino and of Valnerina and connected by tightened technique and similar style. The resulting geometric synthesis of this compact group of wood carving
s, the iconic system of the image, is transfigured in an embrace of overwhelming sweetness,” (Casciaro), an "idyll of love, tenderness and sublime devotion". (Venanzangeli pp 76–78). This utterly sweet and sentimental style of carving was clearly popular in The Marche; there are similar statues spread all around the region, in Castel Sant’Angelo, Caldarola
, Visso, Preci, Camerino and Sarnarno. For the residents and shepherds at Macereto, this ‘decision’ by The Virgin to make her stop on the plain must have been seen as a fantastic miracle. Not only were they ‘chosen’, but also the statue would not be leaving the region, a double miracle for the highly nationalistic Marchigians who would have been sad to lose such a gorgeous piece of work.
. The success of the work is evident when one considers that it served as the model for many Marchigian artists, some of whom reproduced it.
The statue remained at Macereto and a little church was built for it and news of the miracle spread rapidly throughout the area. By 1414, recorded healings had taken place, one Angelo di Forsivo was noted to regain his sight in the presence of the statue . Although miracles, in particular healings, were said to have taken place in direct connection with the shrine, the Church was generally unwilling to accept these as ‘Holy Miracle
s.’ But the chiesetta became filled with ex-voto gifts and many tokens were also given to the church of Santa Maria in Visso.
As the century progressed the chiesetta was considered more important and by 1486, it was on the map as a genuine stop on the pilgrimage
route to Loreto. (It should be noted that The Church did not approve of Loreto as a place of pilgrimage itself until 1507). “With a legal testament made on the 29 April 1486, a certain Clemente di Arbe sent in his place a person to complete a devout pilgrimage and he exhorted him, after to have been to Assisi, to continue for Saint Maria di Loreto, taking the route of the Valnerina, with pause at Macereto.” (Grimaldi p100).
The shrine had also become the recipient of donations and inheritances, and was the focus of local devotion. In 1480 the people of Ussita were exhorted to visit the church “at least once a month between the months of April and September. Failure to visit the church would incur a charge of 10 soldi. Also, everyone from the castle owner to the labourer has to sing during the mass and take part in prayers.” (Venanzangeli p28) Important visitors began to arrive on pilgrimages as recorded on the temple stone, “prodigiorum pompa culture populum illustres principes frequenter viros traxit ad se” and on 12 August 1464 it was recorded that “between the pilgrims there were cardinal
s Marco Rovere and Teodoro Leli”, also, in 1503 “when Pope Alessandro VI died, the tyrannical Duke Valentino took over the area near Visso. The bishop
s from Umbria, in return, pilgrim to Macereto and the bishops and priest from Camerino were asking our powerful Queen for a new Pope and peace for the Church.” On 12 August 1520, “within the crowd and the famous pilgrims was Marca Niccolo Bonafede, bishop of Chiusi”. (Venanzangeli p 29)
intervened, and by 1517 he helped the presbytery of Visso
to apply to have the Macereto chapel under the local government and persuaded Varano to define a borders between Camerino and Visso. Once the legal rights to the land were secure, the Vissani swiftly planned for a sanctuary to encompass the chiesetta. The Capitolo della Collegiata of Visso, who previously administered the chiesetta, was entrusted to raise funds from three sources: funds came from income earned from the land that was already owned by the sanctuary, the money from the four collection boxes placed in the church made up the second part and the third section comprised donations and gifts that were streaming in from outside the church itself. As soon as it was known that there was to be a marvellous sanctuary built, the local population began donating great sums of money to the project. Naturally most of the money came from the wealthiest members of society. This was philanthropy
of the type that saw huge construction projects paid for by mill owners and the heads of industry in England during the Industrial Revolution. Connected with The Church, these donation
s assuaged the guilt perhaps felt by the very rich who were making a great deal of money from the sweat of the workers. In this case, the donations were carried along on the “fiume delle lane” (Don Sante Deuteri - interview) that had brought huge wealth to the landlords of the region in the way that the wool trade enriched the English landlords, too.
“Such an ambitious project took shape in the minds full of good will of the most influential people of Visso, considering the serious amounts of money that were left after pilgrimages and some special donations from devout rich people, like the one given in 1524 by Cristoforo Pierangel from Ussita, dead near the sanctuary where he had gone in ill health” (Venanzangeli p31). In his will
he named the church at Macereto as universal heir to his fortunes “with powers to sell them in order to build”. (ibid p31) By the 1520’s there were so many donations coming in that it was said, “there were no wills done that would not leave something towards the construction of that church” (Pirri, p39)
The Collegiata administered the funds until 1562 when irregularities were spotted in the accounts and it was noted, “apparently in good will, 47 scudi coming from Macereto were spent to buy a new floor in Santa Maria of Visso.” (Venanzangeli). The Priori of Visso were then given the administration responsibilities and they in turn would report to the Collegiata.
On the 26th September 1586 Pope Sixtus V
issued a document that made the situation official through a “transaction that took place on 12 December 1583 between Church and Community leaders of Visso…Amongst other things, the way that the expenses towards the maintenance of the church people in service in Macereto were dealt with, their rights and duties, the responsibilities of the Priori for all expenses – which they could not authorize without orders and planning from the architects, failure to do so would have resulted in them being held responsible with their own belongings – all came under strict regulations.” (Venanzangeli p32)
, was chosen. Also involved was Master Filippo Salvi from Meli (near Bissone
) who had worked on the Santa Maria della Consolazione
at Todi
. Another theory is that the original design for the sanctuary was by Donato Bramante
, who was particularly attached to circular symmetrically proportioned churches.
The odd thing is that these ideas were not embraced by the architect
s of the time (with respect to the concept of centrally planned churches) for another fifty years and two of the main protagonists of this had worked shoulder to shoulder in Lombardy, which is where the architects who were known to have worked at Macereto had come from. It is likely too, that Bramante, Salvi and Gian Battista da Lugano all left Lombardy
at about the same time either fleeing from or banned by the army of Louis XII of France.
The facts are that when Bramante went to Milan
in 1480, where he first applied his techniques he worked on the same plot as one of the greatest artist/theorists of all time, Leonardo da Vinci
. They were both employed by the church of Santa Maria delle Grazie, Bramante on the dome and Leonardo next door in the refectory of the monastery, painting his Last Supper. “We can only assume that their meetings were frequent and productive. One can only imagine how, over a few years, both Leonardo and Bramante – foreigners and equally attracted by the theme of the centralized church – had much to question and discuss.” (Rowe & Satkowski p14) Although Leonardo was never to design or construct a single building he drew numerous sketches in which the concept was explored (fig). His theory being a continuation of the Albertian model in which everything should work in harmony with everything else. “By 1490, structures not unlike those of Bramante’s St. Peter’s or Santa Maria della Consolazione
at Todi
had appeared amongst Leonardo’s sketches.” (Bruschi p44)
The pragmatics of actually building this perfectly symmetrical construction tends to come up against a simple problem of cost. Presuming that the architects and commissioners had come to an agreement about the placement of the altar and other problems that centrally planned churches bring up, the absolute perfection of a building could be compromised by the question of where to put the campanile
. In Bramante’s Tempietto such a dilemma would not have been as issue as this building did not require one, in St Peter's Basilica, cost was not an issue, so it could have a campanile at each ‘corner’ (which was Leonardo’s vision, see fig). The clearest illustration of an attempt to deal with the campanile question in a church outside Rome is the sanctuary of Santa Maria della Consolazione at Todi which in fact is not even clearly attributed to Bramante, although Bruschi does list references to Bramante in connection with it.
“Typically understood as a simplification of his plan for St Peter’s, there is evidence for Bramante’s participation in its design at some level. The design, after all, has much in common with the Leonardesque themes that Bramante brought with him from Milan. Above all, the Consolazione’s pristine combination of cube, drum, dome and apses shows its origins in the sketches by Leonardo that were central to his development as an artist (fig)…Though in most respects the ideas of Bramante are undeniably present, the flaccid orders on the exterior of this otherwise impressive church suggests that he may not have participated directly in its execution” (Ibid p44-45)
The connection between the sanctuary of Santa Maria della Consolazione and that at Macereto is evident in architectural details and motifs. As at Todi, the Macereto sanctuary is centrally planned, built on a Greek cross system within an octagonal drum. Todi was also built to house a relic that would have been placed in a small chapel beneath the central dome as at Macereto. The architect who had worked on both buildings was Master Filippo Salvi da Meli who worked with Gian Battista da Lugano and it was Gian Battista who remained in charge of the construction until his untimely death in 1539 when he fell from a scaffold whilst completing the arches of the temple.
Bramante’s influence is everywhere and most people writing about the sanctuary mention him at some point, even if only to say that the building is Bramantesque. In his The temple of the Madonna of Macereto. Malpeli claims “the temple of Macereto was heavily influenced by Bramante, especially in the decorative vibrations which were very particular. This is why we were allowed to say that the monument is of a Bramantesque style. The paternity of the temple has to be given to the architect Battista Lugano, especially for the general idea and the more constructive part, which was getting away from the minimalism that is found in Bramante’s work.” (Malpeli p37).
The exterior walls of the sanctuary are imposing and almost entirely undecorated. There are three great, classically inspired doors with pedimented arches decorated with columns with Doric capitols. Unadorned white stone walls rise to the cornice
that is also simply decorated with Corinthian columns. The outside of the building remains unfinished as work had to be stopped in 1566 when the builders discovered that the ground would not support the external dome or a campanile . It is the interior however, that bears such a striking resemblance to the interiors of both Santa Maria della Consolazione and Santa Maria at Loreto.
All three buildings have as their main theme a great dome under which is positioned the sacred image. In the case of the Santa Maria della Consolazione, the image has ended up in one of the semicircular apse
s, but it is this church that has the architectonic connections with the sanctuary of Macereto. Four main pillars that are connected by great arches, which are decorated identically, support the central dome . The arches are decorated with coffers with rosettes. Both churches have the same decorations and it is this style that links the Todi and Macereto sanctuaries, pointed out by most commentators (fig). It would have been Master Filippo Salvi, working on both projects, who would have used this technique. These two great Marian sanctuaries of the cinquecento in central Italy correspond with each other because of the actual connection provided by Salvi but they were also representative of the spirit of the age. And even if it was not actually Donato Bramante who had submitted the original drawings for the buildings, it is undeniable that his presence is in both structures.
At the sanctuary in Loreto, the dome and shrine are at the eastern end of a conventional church built in the oblong model of the basilica. But once one comes to the focus of the church, the tiny capella that houses the Santa Casa, the relationship between this and the sanctuary at Macereto is very clear. The ‘original’ home of the Virgin Mary was transported first from Galilee to Dalmatia and then, in 1294 across to the bandit-infested laurel grove above Porto Recanati
, hence the name ‘Loreto’. It would not be until about two hundred years later, in 1507 that the Church approved of Loreto as a place of pilgrimage and the work began, which was around the same time as the construction of the sanctuaries of both Todi and Macereto.
Whilst it is apparent that more money came to Loreto and so the Santa Casa is visibly more splendid, the decoration of the inner chapels are very similar and it is generally agreed that the chiesetta at Macereto echoes that of Loreto . A simple white stone and marble rectangular shell surrounds the original building that contains the image.
It was Bramante who had handed in the original designs for the shrine at Loreto but had had very little to do with it after that, the job having been taken on by the great medal designer Gian Cristoforo Romano, Andrea Sansovino and Antonio da Sangallo the Younger. It is a good example of High Renaissance Architecture
, combining the elegance and simplicity of the classical lines and motifs with rich encrustations of statues and other decoration. The basic design of the Santa Casa resonates in the chiesetta at Macereto. The cornice is decorated with a simple Greek key design, below which hang swags. The columns, in bas-relief at Macereto are lighter and more minimal than the pomp and splendour of those at Loreto. Where the statues of the prophet
s seated around the lower level of the shrine at Loreto (highly reminiscent of Michelangelo’s prophets in the Medici tomb in Florence
) are, at Macereto there are empty niche
s. Whether there were plans to install any statues is not known. The outer walls of the Santa Casa are covered with relief work, statues and other decoration, there is very little empty space, as if the three artists commissioned to complete the building could not resist making yet another addition. As a result it comes across as being rather overloaded in contrast to the delicate simplicity of Macereto’s chiesetta.
If we work on the assumption that the sanctuary at Macereto was one of the officially recognised stop-overs on one of the major pilgrimage routes to Loreto it is tempting to view the construction of the chiesetta as being something that would not only connect the two sanctuaries by visible association but also serve to keep the pilgrims minded of their eventual destination. The architectural motifs and style of the two - churches-within-churches - are rare and bear such a striking resemblance to one another that with the suggestion that Donato Bramante may have had a hand in the design of both. At some stage, it would hint that there is more to connect them than the fact that they are both Marian shrines. Added to this is the fact that both the Todi and Macereto sanctuaries are centrally planned ‘temples’ that are very much in the style of Bramante and that quite apart from the murmurings of art historians about the connection between the two buildings, the stylistic signatures are plain to see. The three churches were built in the High Renaissance, a time when The Church was eager to convince a population shaken by the steady drip of the Reformation that there was only one true Church. They share the same language and all reflect elements of the mother of all churches, the great basilica of Saint Peter’s in Rome, designed by Donato Bramante (too).
The connection between the sanctuaries at Macereto and Todi is also clear in the documents and also the treatment of other architectural details , I have used this to indicate the link between the architects, with Filippo Salvi as the ‘go-between’ for Bramante. The importance of this sanctuary and perhaps the reason why it was valued so highly was that it contained the holy statue, a physical representation of a miracle that in turn stood for the victory of one powerful and rich merchant town over its more ancient and venerable neighbour.
Chapel
A chapel is a building used by Christians as a place of fellowship and worship. It may be part of a larger structure or complex, such as a church, college, hospital, palace, prison or funeral home, located on board a military or commercial ship, or it may be an entirely free-standing building,...
in Italy, built between 1528 and 1538 around a smaller 14th-century chapel constructed to hold a miraculous statue of the Madonna. It is located in the Parco Nazionale dei Monti Sibillini, Marche
Marche
The population density in the region is below the national average. In 2008, it was 161.5 inhabitants per km2, compared to the national figure of 198.8. It is highest in the province of Ancona , and lowest in the province of Macerata...
(Italy).
The History of Macereto
The sanctuary is on a site that was formerly occupied by the medieval castle of Macereto, built below Mount Grotagna. Its strategic position controlled the intersection of the roads that crossed the inhospitable Sibilline chain of the Apennine MountainsApennine mountains
The Apennines or Apennine Mountains or Greek oros but just as often used alone as a noun. The ancient Greeks and Romans typically but not always used "mountain" in the singular to mean one or a range; thus, "the Apennine mountain" refers to the entire chain and is translated "the Apennine...
. One road runs east through Cupi, down the valley to Fiastra
Fiastra
Fiastra is a comune in the Province of Macerata in the Italian region Marche, located about 70 km southwest of Ancona and about 40 km southwest of Macerata....
and from there to the eastern coast. The other road follows the spine of the mountain range to Ussita
Ussita
Ùssita is a comune in the Province of Macerata in the Italian region Marche, located about 80 km southwest of Ancona and about 45 km southwest of Macerata.The communal seat is in the frazione of Fluminata.-External links:*...
and from there, to Ascoli Piceno
Ascoli Piceno
Ascoli Piceno is a town and comune in the Marche region of Italy, capital of the province of the same name. Its population is c. 51,400.-Geography:...
. At the sanctuary, the roads converge and then plunge west to Visso
Visso
Visso is a comune in the Province of Macerata in the Italian region Marche, located about 80 km southwest of Ancona and about 50 km southwest of Macerata. It houses the seat of the Monti Sibillini National Park.-External links:...
.
Routes of the Pilgrims
For pilgrims travelling from the west to Loreto from the 13th century onwards, the Flaminian and Salarian roads would have been the safest and most popular routes. But for the pilgrims, all roads would have led to LoretoLoreto (AN)
Loreto is a hilltown and comune of the Italian province of Ancona, in the Marche. It is mostly famous as the seat of the Basilica della Santa Casa, a popular Catholic pilgrimage site.-Location:...
and, as Giuseppe Cucco points out in Santuari nelle Marche, “the regional situation was different. The final destination was Loreto, whilst the other sanctuaries were stop-overs. Saint Basso in Cupramarittima was the stopping place for pilgrims coming from the south and the Blessed Virgin in Ponte Metauro
Metauro
The Metauro is a river of the Marche, central Italy. It rises in the Apennine Mountains and runs east for 110 km ....
in Fano
Fano
Fano is a town and comune of the province of Pesaro and Urbino in the Marche region of Italy. It is a beach resort 12 km southeast of Pesaro, located where the Via Flaminia reaches the Adriatic Sea...
was the stopping place for those coming from the north.” (Cucco p 25) But these were merely roads that ran along the coast, whereas the interior of the country was networked with “major arteries to Loreto and one should rather talk of a huge number of little roads that would end at Loreto from each valley, each hill and each village.” (Ibid p26)
“Travelling again over some routes, today one can trace, from the less navigable roads, or following the traces that remain in some ancient mountain passes, between the coastal zone and that of the Apennine hinterland, it is possible to find that the cult of the Virgin of Loreto bloomed more quickly just in the towns of the itinerant shepherds, mendicants and merchants who used these routes”(Grimaldi p 81): In particular, one can see many traces of the cult throughout these towns, many of which are in direct reference to Loreto. For instance, on a wall immediately outside the Porta della Santa Maria in Visso it is still possible to see the 15th century sign that reads "Alla Madonna di Macereto et Loreto" . (Fig 2) The many pilgrims and merchants who used this route could have stayed in the hostel of the Santissima Trinita in Visso and then their route would have been indicated as they left Visso for the arduous climb up to the altopiano of Macereto.
In this small area, Visso and Camerino
Camerino
Camerino is a small town of 7.135 inhabitants in the Marches , in the province of Macerata, Italy. It is located in the Apennines bordering Umbria, between the valleys of the rivers Potenza and Chienti, about 40 miles from Ancona....
vied with each other for control of traffic and the local population. Camerino is the older town and its position was better in terms of controlling the huge number of traffic that came through the narrow pass at Muccia
Muccia
Muccia is a comune in the Province of Macerata in the Italian region Marche, located about 70 km southwest of Ancona and about 40 km southwest of Macerata...
on the Flaminian road. The geography of this route would have been easier for beasts and vehicles. But the Camerinese were also keen to control the routes through to southern Italy and were locked in a seemingly endless and fruitless feud to that end. The castle at Grotagna that came to be called Macereto was often the focus of their fierce and often bloody rivalry and when the intervention of Pope Boniface IX
Pope Boniface IX
Pope Boniface IX , born Piero Tomacelli, was the second Roman Pope of the Western Schism from November 2, 1389, until October 1, 1404...
placed Macereto under the jurisdiction of Visso in 1404 and then finally, in 1521, when “Duke Giovanni Maria Varano organised inspections and an in-depth study on the disagreements between the communities of Appennino, Ussita and Cupi” and a decree was issued that divided the contested land and put the hilltop of Macereto under control of Visso. Vissanis celebrated this event with the commission of the sanctuary.
Naming of Macereto
Macereto as a place was first formally recognized in 1255, when one of the landlords of the region, Tiboldo di Farolfo di Nocria sold the land along with “the residential castles of Nocria and Pietralata, together with all the rights on its people and all its rights on Visso, Macereto, Nocelleto, Gualdo and the Villa of Aschio, on the hills and wilds and on the pastures of these castles and of the neighbouring lands and on the people of the parish and the district for the equivalent of 500 coins from Ravenna and Ancona, 40 moggi of land good for growing in Nocria, 2 moggi of land in the vineyards of Visso and a little mansion near Pontelato.” (Venanzangeli p 13) Visso snapped this land up as it offered them great strategic power.At more or less the same time, however, in 1259, “the Count Magalotto dei Magolotti sold to Camerino the Fiastra Castle, the Poggia Serra one, half the Appennino Castle together with its annexed territories, people and villages and the rights on the Macereto Castle and its people wherever they should be.” (Ibid p14). A stalemate ensued and the rivalry between the boroughs merely heightened. Neither of these sales was entirely legal, the ownership of this desolate and barren land had never been formally recorded and the feud between the two families was merely passed on to the two rival boroughs. The uncertainties that followed on ownership and border issues were left to the two parties to sort out, which naturally exacerbated an already heated situation.
In 1277 Visso burned down the Camerinese Appennino Castle, which was subsequently rebuilt. Then Camerino destroyed the Castle of Macereto in 1313 with the help of the Ruler of the Dukedom of Spoleto “who was keen to see the rebel borough of Visso brought back under the influence of the Church.” (Venanzangeli p 14). The Castle was rebuilt too.
Bonifacio IX, in an attempt to soothe the disputes made “The Rocca di Macereto a county, naming Bante and Apollonio, the sons of the notary Cataldino Boncompagni, Counts of Macereto.” At the end of the trecento the Boncompagni household left the isolated Castle of Macereto and moved down to Visso, taking an active role in the battles that culminated for them in 1499 when the Camerinese killed Cataldino Boncompagni. After this family tragedy, the Boncompagni family emigrated and sold the title to Visso. This finally put the Castle of Macereto under the official control of the borough of Visso. They were to be linked again when in 1583 Pope Gregory XIII
Pope Gregory XIII
Pope Gregory XIII , born Ugo Boncompagni, was Pope from 1572 to 1585. He is best known for commissioning and being the namesake for the Gregorian calendar, which remains the internationally-accepted civil calendar to this date.-Youth:He was born the son of Cristoforo Boncompagni and wife Angela...
, from the same Boncompagni family, honoured his familial roots by making Visso a permanent base for the Government.
In 1521, the issued decree ended the disputes over the land, with “the verdict agreed and sworn upon by Sir Venanzio Cistofori, legal authority of Camerino and by Sir Gianpietro Dominici, legal authority of Visso” and a truce was finally reached. In 1522, having set up the new borders with Camerino and achieving domination over the area with a final decisive victory over another rival borough of Nursini in the battle of Pian Ferduto, “Visso was then able to make use of its freedom and new security to realize the long planned project and build, on the highlands of Macereto, a great and artistic sanctuary.” (Venanzangeli p 30)
The Origin of the Sanctuary
The plateau of Macereto had long been an important place of cultural and social significance. Quite apart from the battles that Visso, Camerino, Nursini and others waged here, the highlands were home to the shepherds. The moving of the sheep between grazing lands in the territories of Mounts Sibillini, to the territories of Visso and Norcia, and above all, in the Roman plains, goes back to prehistory. This practice, taking place between the end of September and the beginning of May (when the winter snows have melted) is described by Varrone (in Rerum Rusticarum) and Columella (De re rustica). As this was an area that seemed to exist somehow sans frontiers, the delineation between UmbriaUmbria
Umbria is a region of modern central Italy. It is one of the smallest Italian regions and the only peninsular region that is landlocked.Its capital is Perugia.Assisi and Norcia are historical towns associated with St. Francis of Assisi, and St...
and The Marche was rarely enforced, allowing these itinerant people to move with comparative freedom . People would come from the rural districts would only see one another at these occasions.
In the Macereto plain, flocks could come and graze without encroaching on each other. This led to the instigation of an annual summer sheep fair
Fair
A fair or fayre is a gathering of people to display or trade produce or other goods, to parade or display animals and often to enjoy associated carnival or funfair entertainment. It is normally of the essence of a fair that it is temporary; some last only an afternoon while others may ten weeks. ...
, which continues even to this day. These fairs (fiere) were connected to religious festival
Religious festival
A religious festival is a time of special importance marked by adherents to that religion. Religious festivals are commonly celebrated on recurring cycles in a calendar year or lunar calendar...
s and originated when people would traditionally travel great distances to a particular place to celebrate a saint
Saint
A saint is a holy person. In various religions, saints are people who are believed to have exceptional holiness.In Christian usage, "saint" refers to any believer who is "in Christ", and in whom Christ dwells, whether in heaven or in earth...
’s day for instance. “The basis of fiere, which lasted several days, was the difficulty and danger of travelling. They originated from the festivals of various saints when the faithful met in some temple or sanctuary: sellers of every type of merchandise would go to these gatherings. The term fiera derives from ferie – giorno di festa (feast-day). Peaking in the 14th-16th centuries, commerce
Commerce
While business refers to the value-creating activities of an organization for profit, commerce means the whole system of an economy that constitutes an environment for business. The system includes legal, economic, political, social, cultural, and technological systems that are in operation in any...
developed with the rise of the free commune
Medieval commune
Medieval communes in the European Middle Ages had sworn allegiances of mutual defense among the citizens of a town or city. They took many forms, and varied widely in organization and makeup. Communes are first recorded in the late 11th and early 12th centuries, thereafter becoming a widespread...
s. Usually a fiera was given a spacious field outside the town walls with roofing for animals, barracks for the merchants and their merchandise….The altopiano of Macereto was much travelled on account of the road running from the Marche to the Kingdom of Naples
Kingdom of Naples
The Kingdom of Naples, comprising the southern part of the Italian peninsula, was the remainder of the old Kingdom of Sicily after secession of the island of Sicily as a result of the Sicilian Vespers rebellion of 1282. Known to contemporaries as the Kingdom of Sicily, it is dubbed Kingdom of...
. From then on and with the increasing flow of pilgrims, the fiera assumed great religious importance through the numerous gatherings of people from Umbria and the Marche….The Macereto fairs were particularly useful for those involved with the sheep business.”
The shepherds who travelled from Visso, Ussita and Cupi had originally marked out the roads in this wonderful natural resource, which became the major routes through the mountains. By the trecento the track that ran from Fiastra, through Cupi, past Macereto and then down to Visso had become so established that wheeled vehicles, and the traditional sleds in winter, were able to navigate it without too much trouble. But it was at Macereto that everyone would gather, the Castle that was built there had its origins in this traffic and would have offered a social and cultural hub for travelers from Ussita, as well as for shepherds and inhabitants of the little group of dwellings around the castle. It is without doubt that a small shrine
Shrine
A shrine is a holy or sacred place, which is dedicated to a specific deity, ancestor, hero, martyr, saint, daemon or similar figure of awe and respect, at which they are venerated or worshipped. Shrines often contain idols, relics, or other such objects associated with the figure being venerated....
would have already existed at the spot before the ‘miracle’, tended by the shepherds who would have not been able to get to a town to take part in a Mass
Mass
Mass can be defined as a quantitive measure of the resistance an object has to change in its velocity.In physics, mass commonly refers to any of the following three properties of matter, which have been shown experimentally to be equivalent:...
.
There are a hundred and sixty-three officially recognized sanctuaries in The Marche alone, most of which are positioned, not so much where an actual miracle occurred but normally in “areas of particular worship that strengthened with time”. In a part of the world where primitive beliefs were still very much a part of life, the Church had achieved considerable success by tying these ‘pagan’ attitudes with conventional religious practices.
Origin of the sanctuary - The Miracle
The origin of the sanctuary at Macereto is based on a legend. A wooden statue of the Madonna and Child was being transported across the mountains as a gift from the Marca di Ancona to the Kingdom of Naples. But, “on 12th August 1356, the animal that hauled the wagon with the statue halted on the plateau of Macereto, in the place that was thought prechosen by the Madonna for its destination.” (Casciaro). This statue came to represent a generic Marchigian style and although the artist or workshop that actually created this object is unidentified the ‘school’ has since been called the Maestro della Madonna di Macereto. In Il Quattrocento, a Camerino, Raffaele Casciaro, described the statue as “the most famous work, and therefore the eponymous piece, of a group of anonymous sculptureSculpture
Sculpture is three-dimensional artwork created by shaping or combining hard materials—typically stone such as marble—or metal, glass, or wood. Softer materials can also be used, such as clay, textiles, plastics, polymers and softer metals...
s distributed between the ancient diocese of Camerino and of Valnerina and connected by tightened technique and similar style. The resulting geometric synthesis of this compact group of wood carving
Wood carving
Wood carving is a form of working wood by means of a cutting tool in one hand or a chisel by two hands or with one hand on a chisel and one hand on a mallet, resulting in a wooden figure or figurine, or in the sculptural ornamentation of a wooden object...
s, the iconic system of the image, is transfigured in an embrace of overwhelming sweetness,” (Casciaro), an "idyll of love, tenderness and sublime devotion". (Venanzangeli pp 76–78). This utterly sweet and sentimental style of carving was clearly popular in The Marche; there are similar statues spread all around the region, in Castel Sant’Angelo, Caldarola
Caldarola
Caldarola is a comune in the Province of Macerata in the Italian region Marche, located about 60 km southwest of Ancona and about 25 km southwest of Macerata....
, Visso, Preci, Camerino and Sarnarno. For the residents and shepherds at Macereto, this ‘decision’ by The Virgin to make her stop on the plain must have been seen as a fantastic miracle. Not only were they ‘chosen’, but also the statue would not be leaving the region, a double miracle for the highly nationalistic Marchigians who would have been sad to lose such a gorgeous piece of work.
Provenance of the Statue
Art historians are divided over the provenance of the statue, either from Umbria, although the style could also be Sienese . The work, (“of Sienese taste”), could have come from the hands of a local artist trained in TuscanyTuscany
Tuscany is a region in Italy. It has an area of about 23,000 square kilometres and a population of about 3.75 million inhabitants. The regional capital is Florence ....
. The success of the work is evident when one considers that it served as the model for many Marchigian artists, some of whom reproduced it.
The statue remained at Macereto and a little church was built for it and news of the miracle spread rapidly throughout the area. By 1414, recorded healings had taken place, one Angelo di Forsivo was noted to regain his sight in the presence of the statue . Although miracles, in particular healings, were said to have taken place in direct connection with the shrine, the Church was generally unwilling to accept these as ‘Holy Miracle
Miracle
A miracle often denotes an event attributed to divine intervention. Alternatively, it may be an event attributed to a miracle worker, saint, or religious leader. A miracle is sometimes thought of as a perceptible interruption of the laws of nature. Others suggest that a god may work with the laws...
s.’ But the chiesetta became filled with ex-voto gifts and many tokens were also given to the church of Santa Maria in Visso.
As the century progressed the chiesetta was considered more important and by 1486, it was on the map as a genuine stop on the pilgrimage
Pilgrimage
A pilgrimage is a journey or search of great moral or spiritual significance. Typically, it is a journey to a shrine or other location of importance to a person's beliefs and faith...
route to Loreto. (It should be noted that The Church did not approve of Loreto as a place of pilgrimage itself until 1507). “With a legal testament made on the 29 April 1486, a certain Clemente di Arbe sent in his place a person to complete a devout pilgrimage and he exhorted him, after to have been to Assisi, to continue for Saint Maria di Loreto, taking the route of the Valnerina, with pause at Macereto.” (Grimaldi p100).
The shrine had also become the recipient of donations and inheritances, and was the focus of local devotion. In 1480 the people of Ussita were exhorted to visit the church “at least once a month between the months of April and September. Failure to visit the church would incur a charge of 10 soldi. Also, everyone from the castle owner to the labourer has to sing during the mass and take part in prayers.” (Venanzangeli p28) Important visitors began to arrive on pilgrimages as recorded on the temple stone, “prodigiorum pompa culture populum illustres principes frequenter viros traxit ad se” and on 12 August 1464 it was recorded that “between the pilgrims there were cardinal
Cardinal (Catholicism)
A cardinal is a senior ecclesiastical official, usually an ordained bishop, and ecclesiastical prince of the Catholic Church. They are collectively known as the College of Cardinals, which as a body elects a new pope. The duties of the cardinals include attending the meetings of the College and...
s Marco Rovere and Teodoro Leli”, also, in 1503 “when Pope Alessandro VI died, the tyrannical Duke Valentino took over the area near Visso. The bishop
Bishop
A bishop is an ordained or consecrated member of the Christian clergy who is generally entrusted with a position of authority and oversight. Within the Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox Churches, in the Assyrian Church of the East, in the Independent Catholic Churches, and in the...
s from Umbria, in return, pilgrim to Macereto and the bishops and priest from Camerino were asking our powerful Queen for a new Pope and peace for the Church.” On 12 August 1520, “within the crowd and the famous pilgrims was Marca Niccolo Bonafede, bishop of Chiusi”. (Venanzangeli p 29)
16th Century interest grows
In 1510, the fame of the statue of the Madonna of Macereto motivated a party led by an associate of the Duke of Camerino, Giovanni Maria Varano, to remove the statue from Macereto down to Camerino. The Vissani however intercepted the party at the Varenesi crossing, but unfortunately the statue had been irreparably damaged during the ensuing conflict. The Bishop Bonafede of ChiusiChiusi
Chiusi is a town and comune in province of Siena, Tuscany, Italy.-History:It was one of the more powerful among the Etruscan 12‑city confederation...
intervened, and by 1517 he helped the presbytery of Visso
Visso
Visso is a comune in the Province of Macerata in the Italian region Marche, located about 80 km southwest of Ancona and about 50 km southwest of Macerata. It houses the seat of the Monti Sibillini National Park.-External links:...
to apply to have the Macereto chapel under the local government and persuaded Varano to define a borders between Camerino and Visso. Once the legal rights to the land were secure, the Vissani swiftly planned for a sanctuary to encompass the chiesetta. The Capitolo della Collegiata of Visso, who previously administered the chiesetta, was entrusted to raise funds from three sources: funds came from income earned from the land that was already owned by the sanctuary, the money from the four collection boxes placed in the church made up the second part and the third section comprised donations and gifts that were streaming in from outside the church itself. As soon as it was known that there was to be a marvellous sanctuary built, the local population began donating great sums of money to the project. Naturally most of the money came from the wealthiest members of society. This was philanthropy
Philanthropy
Philanthropy etymologically means "the love of humanity"—love in the sense of caring for, nourishing, developing, or enhancing; humanity in the sense of "what it is to be human," or "human potential." In modern practical terms, it is "private initiatives for public good, focusing on quality of...
of the type that saw huge construction projects paid for by mill owners and the heads of industry in England during the Industrial Revolution. Connected with The Church, these donation
Donation
A donation is a gift given by physical or legal persons, typically for charitable purposes and/or to benefit a cause. A donation may take various forms, including cash, services, new or used goods including clothing, toys, food, and vehicles...
s assuaged the guilt perhaps felt by the very rich who were making a great deal of money from the sweat of the workers. In this case, the donations were carried along on the “fiume delle lane” (Don Sante Deuteri - interview) that had brought huge wealth to the landlords of the region in the way that the wool trade enriched the English landlords, too.
“Such an ambitious project took shape in the minds full of good will of the most influential people of Visso, considering the serious amounts of money that were left after pilgrimages and some special donations from devout rich people, like the one given in 1524 by Cristoforo Pierangel from Ussita, dead near the sanctuary where he had gone in ill health” (Venanzangeli p31). In his will
Will (law)
A will or testament is a legal declaration by which a person, the testator, names one or more persons to manage his/her estate and provides for the transfer of his/her property at death...
he named the church at Macereto as universal heir to his fortunes “with powers to sell them in order to build”. (ibid p31) By the 1520’s there were so many donations coming in that it was said, “there were no wills done that would not leave something towards the construction of that church” (Pirri, p39)
The Collegiata administered the funds until 1562 when irregularities were spotted in the accounts and it was noted, “apparently in good will, 47 scudi coming from Macereto were spent to buy a new floor in Santa Maria of Visso.” (Venanzangeli). The Priori of Visso were then given the administration responsibilities and they in turn would report to the Collegiata.
On the 26th September 1586 Pope Sixtus V
Pope Sixtus V
Pope Sixtus V , born Felice Peretti di Montalto, was Pope from 1585 to 1590.-Early life:The chronicler Andrija Zmajević states that Felice's family originated from modern-day Montenegro...
issued a document that made the situation official through a “transaction that took place on 12 December 1583 between Church and Community leaders of Visso…Amongst other things, the way that the expenses towards the maintenance of the church people in service in Macereto were dealt with, their rights and duties, the responsibilities of the Priori for all expenses – which they could not authorize without orders and planning from the architects, failure to do so would have resulted in them being held responsible with their own belongings – all came under strict regulations.” (Venanzangeli p32)
The Architects of the Sanctuary
In 1527 the Collegiata and the Commune of Visso reached an agreement to commission the sanctuary. Master Gian Battista da Bissone, who had recently designed and built the Palazzo Ottoni (1452) and the Palazzo Piersanti in nearby MatelicaMatelica
Matelica is a comune of the Province of Macerata in the Italian region of Marche. Located about 60 km southwest of Ancona and 35 km west of Macerata, it extends over an area of 81.0 km² and has a population of 10,316 .The municipality of Matelica comprises the hamlets of Balzani,...
, was chosen. Also involved was Master Filippo Salvi from Meli (near Bissone
Bissone
Bissone is a municipality in the district of Lugano, in the canton of Ticino in Switzerland.-History:Bissone is first mentioned in 735 and again in 854 as Blixuni. In German it was known as Byssen, though that name is no longer used....
) who had worked on the Santa Maria della Consolazione
Santa Maria della Consolazione
Santa Maria della Consolazione is a Roman Catholic church in Rome at the foot of the Palatine Hill, in rione Campitelli.-History:The church is named after an icon of the Virgin Mary which was placed on this site to console criminals who were tossed down off the cliff above the church, thought to be...
at Todi
Todi
Todi is a town and comune of the province of Perugia in central Italy. It is perched on a tall two-crested hill overlooking the east bank of the river Tiber, commanding distant views in every direction.In the 1990s, Richard S...
. Another theory is that the original design for the sanctuary was by Donato Bramante
Donato Bramante
Donato Bramante was an Italian architect, who introduced the Early Renaissance style to Milan and the High Renaissance style to Rome, where his most famous design was St...
, who was particularly attached to circular symmetrically proportioned churches.
The odd thing is that these ideas were not embraced by the architect
Architect
An architect is a person trained in the planning, design and oversight of the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to offer or render services in connection with the design and construction of a building, or group of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the...
s of the time (with respect to the concept of centrally planned churches) for another fifty years and two of the main protagonists of this had worked shoulder to shoulder in Lombardy, which is where the architects who were known to have worked at Macereto had come from. It is likely too, that Bramante, Salvi and Gian Battista da Lugano all left Lombardy
Lombardy
Lombardy is one of the 20 regions of Italy. The capital is Milan. One-sixth of Italy's population lives in Lombardy and about one fifth of Italy's GDP is produced in this region, making it the most populous and richest region in the country and one of the richest in the whole of Europe...
at about the same time either fleeing from or banned by the army of Louis XII of France.
The facts are that when Bramante went to Milan
Milan
Milan is the second-largest city in Italy and the capital city of the region of Lombardy and of the province of Milan. The city proper has a population of about 1.3 million, while its urban area, roughly coinciding with its administrative province and the bordering Province of Monza and Brianza ,...
in 1480, where he first applied his techniques he worked on the same plot as one of the greatest artist/theorists of all time, Leonardo da Vinci
Leonardo da Vinci
Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci was an Italian Renaissance polymath: painter, sculptor, architect, musician, scientist, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, geologist, cartographer, botanist and writer whose genius, perhaps more than that of any other figure, epitomized the Renaissance...
. They were both employed by the church of Santa Maria delle Grazie, Bramante on the dome and Leonardo next door in the refectory of the monastery, painting his Last Supper. “We can only assume that their meetings were frequent and productive. One can only imagine how, over a few years, both Leonardo and Bramante – foreigners and equally attracted by the theme of the centralized church – had much to question and discuss.” (Rowe & Satkowski p14) Although Leonardo was never to design or construct a single building he drew numerous sketches in which the concept was explored (fig). His theory being a continuation of the Albertian model in which everything should work in harmony with everything else. “By 1490, structures not unlike those of Bramante’s St. Peter’s or Santa Maria della Consolazione
Santa Maria della Consolazione
Santa Maria della Consolazione is a Roman Catholic church in Rome at the foot of the Palatine Hill, in rione Campitelli.-History:The church is named after an icon of the Virgin Mary which was placed on this site to console criminals who were tossed down off the cliff above the church, thought to be...
at Todi
Todi
Todi is a town and comune of the province of Perugia in central Italy. It is perched on a tall two-crested hill overlooking the east bank of the river Tiber, commanding distant views in every direction.In the 1990s, Richard S...
had appeared amongst Leonardo’s sketches.” (Bruschi p44)
The pragmatics of actually building this perfectly symmetrical construction tends to come up against a simple problem of cost. Presuming that the architects and commissioners had come to an agreement about the placement of the altar and other problems that centrally planned churches bring up, the absolute perfection of a building could be compromised by the question of where to put the campanile
Campanile
Campanile is an Italian word meaning "bell tower" . The term applies to bell towers which are either part of a larger building or free-standing, although in American English, the latter meaning has become prevalent.The most famous campanile is probably the Leaning Tower of Pisa...
. In Bramante’s Tempietto such a dilemma would not have been as issue as this building did not require one, in St Peter's Basilica, cost was not an issue, so it could have a campanile at each ‘corner’ (which was Leonardo’s vision, see fig). The clearest illustration of an attempt to deal with the campanile question in a church outside Rome is the sanctuary of Santa Maria della Consolazione at Todi which in fact is not even clearly attributed to Bramante, although Bruschi does list references to Bramante in connection with it.
“Typically understood as a simplification of his plan for St Peter’s, there is evidence for Bramante’s participation in its design at some level. The design, after all, has much in common with the Leonardesque themes that Bramante brought with him from Milan. Above all, the Consolazione’s pristine combination of cube, drum, dome and apses shows its origins in the sketches by Leonardo that were central to his development as an artist (fig)…Though in most respects the ideas of Bramante are undeniably present, the flaccid orders on the exterior of this otherwise impressive church suggests that he may not have participated directly in its execution” (Ibid p44-45)
The connection between the sanctuary of Santa Maria della Consolazione and that at Macereto is evident in architectural details and motifs. As at Todi, the Macereto sanctuary is centrally planned, built on a Greek cross system within an octagonal drum. Todi was also built to house a relic that would have been placed in a small chapel beneath the central dome as at Macereto. The architect who had worked on both buildings was Master Filippo Salvi da Meli who worked with Gian Battista da Lugano and it was Gian Battista who remained in charge of the construction until his untimely death in 1539 when he fell from a scaffold whilst completing the arches of the temple.
Bramante’s influence is everywhere and most people writing about the sanctuary mention him at some point, even if only to say that the building is Bramantesque. In his The temple of the Madonna of Macereto. Malpeli claims “the temple of Macereto was heavily influenced by Bramante, especially in the decorative vibrations which were very particular. This is why we were allowed to say that the monument is of a Bramantesque style. The paternity of the temple has to be given to the architect Battista Lugano, especially for the general idea and the more constructive part, which was getting away from the minimalism that is found in Bramante’s work.” (Malpeli p37).
The exterior walls of the sanctuary are imposing and almost entirely undecorated. There are three great, classically inspired doors with pedimented arches decorated with columns with Doric capitols. Unadorned white stone walls rise to the cornice
Cornice
Cornice molding is generally any horizontal decorative molding that crowns any building or furniture element: the cornice over a door or window, for instance, or the cornice around the edge of a pedestal. A simple cornice may be formed just with a crown molding.The function of the projecting...
that is also simply decorated with Corinthian columns. The outside of the building remains unfinished as work had to be stopped in 1566 when the builders discovered that the ground would not support the external dome or a campanile . It is the interior however, that bears such a striking resemblance to the interiors of both Santa Maria della Consolazione and Santa Maria at Loreto.
All three buildings have as their main theme a great dome under which is positioned the sacred image. In the case of the Santa Maria della Consolazione, the image has ended up in one of the semicircular apse
Apse
In architecture, the apse is a semicircular recess covered with a hemispherical vault or semi-dome...
s, but it is this church that has the architectonic connections with the sanctuary of Macereto. Four main pillars that are connected by great arches, which are decorated identically, support the central dome . The arches are decorated with coffers with rosettes. Both churches have the same decorations and it is this style that links the Todi and Macereto sanctuaries, pointed out by most commentators (fig). It would have been Master Filippo Salvi, working on both projects, who would have used this technique. These two great Marian sanctuaries of the cinquecento in central Italy correspond with each other because of the actual connection provided by Salvi but they were also representative of the spirit of the age. And even if it was not actually Donato Bramante who had submitted the original drawings for the buildings, it is undeniable that his presence is in both structures.
At the sanctuary in Loreto, the dome and shrine are at the eastern end of a conventional church built in the oblong model of the basilica. But once one comes to the focus of the church, the tiny capella that houses the Santa Casa, the relationship between this and the sanctuary at Macereto is very clear. The ‘original’ home of the Virgin Mary was transported first from Galilee to Dalmatia and then, in 1294 across to the bandit-infested laurel grove above Porto Recanati
Porto Recanati
Porto Recanati is a town and comune in the centre of Italy, on the eastern coast on the Adriatic sea. It is located in the province of Macerata, in the Marche region.-Overview:...
, hence the name ‘Loreto’. It would not be until about two hundred years later, in 1507 that the Church approved of Loreto as a place of pilgrimage and the work began, which was around the same time as the construction of the sanctuaries of both Todi and Macereto.
Whilst it is apparent that more money came to Loreto and so the Santa Casa is visibly more splendid, the decoration of the inner chapels are very similar and it is generally agreed that the chiesetta at Macereto echoes that of Loreto . A simple white stone and marble rectangular shell surrounds the original building that contains the image.
It was Bramante who had handed in the original designs for the shrine at Loreto but had had very little to do with it after that, the job having been taken on by the great medal designer Gian Cristoforo Romano, Andrea Sansovino and Antonio da Sangallo the Younger. It is a good example of High Renaissance Architecture
Renaissance architecture
Renaissance architecture is the architecture of the period between the early 15th and early 17th centuries in different regions of Europe, demonstrating a conscious revival and development of certain elements of ancient Greek and Roman thought and material culture. Stylistically, Renaissance...
, combining the elegance and simplicity of the classical lines and motifs with rich encrustations of statues and other decoration. The basic design of the Santa Casa resonates in the chiesetta at Macereto. The cornice is decorated with a simple Greek key design, below which hang swags. The columns, in bas-relief at Macereto are lighter and more minimal than the pomp and splendour of those at Loreto. Where the statues of the prophet
Prophet
In religion, a prophet, from the Greek word προφήτης profitis meaning "foreteller", is an individual who is claimed to have been contacted by the supernatural or the divine, and serves as an intermediary with humanity, delivering this newfound knowledge from the supernatural entity to other people...
s seated around the lower level of the shrine at Loreto (highly reminiscent of Michelangelo’s prophets in the Medici tomb in Florence
Florence
Florence is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and of the province of Florence. It is the most populous city in Tuscany, with approximately 370,000 inhabitants, expanding to over 1.5 million in the metropolitan area....
) are, at Macereto there are empty niche
Niche (architecture)
A niche in classical architecture is an exedra or an apse that has been reduced in size, retaining the half-dome heading usual for an apse. Nero's Domus Aurea was the first semi-private dwelling that possessed rooms that were given richly varied floor plans, shaped with niches and exedras;...
s. Whether there were plans to install any statues is not known. The outer walls of the Santa Casa are covered with relief work, statues and other decoration, there is very little empty space, as if the three artists commissioned to complete the building could not resist making yet another addition. As a result it comes across as being rather overloaded in contrast to the delicate simplicity of Macereto’s chiesetta.
If we work on the assumption that the sanctuary at Macereto was one of the officially recognised stop-overs on one of the major pilgrimage routes to Loreto it is tempting to view the construction of the chiesetta as being something that would not only connect the two sanctuaries by visible association but also serve to keep the pilgrims minded of their eventual destination. The architectural motifs and style of the two - churches-within-churches - are rare and bear such a striking resemblance to one another that with the suggestion that Donato Bramante may have had a hand in the design of both. At some stage, it would hint that there is more to connect them than the fact that they are both Marian shrines. Added to this is the fact that both the Todi and Macereto sanctuaries are centrally planned ‘temples’ that are very much in the style of Bramante and that quite apart from the murmurings of art historians about the connection between the two buildings, the stylistic signatures are plain to see. The three churches were built in the High Renaissance, a time when The Church was eager to convince a population shaken by the steady drip of the Reformation that there was only one true Church. They share the same language and all reflect elements of the mother of all churches, the great basilica of Saint Peter’s in Rome, designed by Donato Bramante (too).
The connection between the sanctuaries at Macereto and Todi is also clear in the documents and also the treatment of other architectural details , I have used this to indicate the link between the architects, with Filippo Salvi as the ‘go-between’ for Bramante. The importance of this sanctuary and perhaps the reason why it was valued so highly was that it contained the holy statue, a physical representation of a miracle that in turn stood for the victory of one powerful and rich merchant town over its more ancient and venerable neighbour.