The Collegiate Church of Santa Maria Assunta () is a

Gothic Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, a Germanic people **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Gothic alphabet, an alphabet used to write the Gothic language ** Gothic ( ...

church located in

Sermoneta Sermoneta is a hill town and ''comune'' in the province of Latina (Lazio), central Italy. It is a walled hill town, with a 13th-century Romanesque church, the Collegiate Church of Santa Maria Assunta (sometimes erroneously called a cathedral) ...

, southern

Lazio Lazio ( , ; ) or Latium ( , ; from Latium, the original Latin name, ) is one of the 20 Regions of Italy, administrative regions of Italy. Situated in the Central Italy, central peninsular section of the country, it has 5,714,882 inhabitants an ...

, Italy. The church is often referred to as a cathedral ("cattedrale") but has never been the seat of a bishop. It is dedicated to the

Assumption of the Virgin Mary The Assumption of Mary is one of the four Marian dogmas of the Catholic Church. Pope Pius XII defined it on 1 November 1950 in his apostolic constitution as follows: It leaves open the question of whether Mary died or whether she was ra ...

History

The church is documented for the first time in the 12th century (1149–60). A

palaeo-Christian Early Christianity, otherwise called the Early Church or Paleo-Christianity, describes the historical era of the Christian religion up to the First Council of Nicaea in 325. Christianity spread from the Levant, across the Roman Empire, and beyo ...

church was possibly first built in the 5th century over a temple dedicated to the pagan goddess

Cybele Cybele ( ; Phrygian: ''Matar Kubileya, Kubeleya'' "Kubeleya Mother", perhaps "Mountain Mother"; Lydian: ''Kuvava''; ''Kybélē'', ''Kybēbē'', ''Kybelis'') is an Anatolian mother goddess; she may have a possible forerunner in the earliest ...

. The Romanesque church was refurbished in the next century in a Gothic style.

Description

The church has a tall square bell-tower with rounded arches. The Gothic portico leads to a nave supported by marble columns. The lunette of the portico was frescoed in the 15th century with a ''Madonna and Child with Saints Peter and

Epaphroditus Epaphroditus () is a New Testament figure appearing as an envoy of the Philippian church to assist the Apostle Paul ( Philippians 2:25-30). He is regarded as a saint of the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Roman Catholic Church, first Bishop of ...

'' and ''Christ and four angels'' by Pietro Colaberti of Piperno. The interior chapels also have frescoes. The first chapel on the right was refurbished in the 1590s by the De Marchis family. The wall frescoes depict contemporary figures such as

Carlo Borromeo Charles Borromeo (; ; 2 October 1538 – 3 November 1584) was an Italian Catholic prelate who served as Archbishop of Milan from 1564 to 1584. He was made a cardinal in 1560. Borromeo founded the Confraternity of Christian Doctrine and was ...

and the donors. The main altarpiece, the ''Madonna degli Angeli'' (c. 1452), is attributed to

Benozzo Gozzoli Benozzo Gozzoli (; born Benozzo di Lese; 4 October 1497) was an Italian Renaissance painter from Florence. A pupil of Fra Angelico, Gozzoli is best known for a series of murals in the Magi Chapel of the Palazzo Medici-Riccardi, depicting festi ...

. Other sources attribute the work to the time after a plague epidemic or earthquake in 1456–57. The church also has frescoes attributed to Bernardino Cesari depicting the ''Life of the Virgin''. Works of art in the church is an altarpiece depicting the ''Holy Family with St Anne and John'' from a 16th-century Neapolitan artist. The church also has a 15th-century ''Last Judgement'' fresco. In the adjacent Diocesan Museum of Art are altarpieces including:Comune of Sermoneta
short entry. *''Coronation of the Virgin'' (1576) by Girolamo Siciolante *''St. Michael Archangel'' (1595) by Francesco da Castello *''Madonna and Child with Saints Stephen and Lawrence'' (17th century) *''Annunciation'' (1606) by

Matteo Rosselli Matteo Rosselli (10 August 1578 – 18 January 1650) was an Italian painter of the late Florentine Counter-Mannerism and early Baroque. He is best known however for his highly populated grand-manner historical paintings. Biography He first appr ...

*''Madonna of the Rosary with St Francis, Jerome, Dominic, and Catherine of Siena'' by Giovanni Domenico Fiorentini *''Madonna and Child with Saints Ignatius, Francesco Borgia, Stanislao Kostka, Aloysius Gonzaga, Francis Xavier, and the blessed Claudio Acquaviva'' by

Odoardo Vicinelli Odoardo Vicinelli (1683, Rome – 1755, Rome) was an Italian painter of the late-Baroque period. Life and work He trained under Giovanni Maria Morandi, who was originally from Florence. His preference for a Classical chiaroscuro technique was de ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Maria Assunta Sermoneta 13th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in Italy Gothic architecture in Lazio