The Church of Santa Maria di Propezzano Together with the adjacent monastery was part of the abbey of the same name belonging to the order of Benedictine monks. The monastery grew in the same period in which grew in the valley teramana other important abbeys as San Salvatore di Canzano and San Clemente al Vomano. Il nome “Propezzano” sembra si possa etimologicamente ricollegare a quello della Madonna pledge to the poor, which the church is named.

Historical Background

The building of the church, according to tradition, arises from the miracle of the apparition of Our Lady occurred in this place the 10 May 715.

Have not been found in spite of medieval sources and the loss of the cards of the abbey, the story of the miraculous event has been passed down from long inscription fifteenth century frescoes, and still partially visible on the parts of plaster remained, in the portion of the wall above the entrance portal, painted at the behest of the canonical Atri Andrea Cerone.

The inscription tells of break of three German pilgrims, definiti “archbishop of“, that here we stopped to rest under a small dogwood tree during the return journey from the Holy Land. They had secured the branches of the plant and their horses supported the exchanges on which transported some relics taken in Palestine.

Shortly after the tree began to grow rapidly by lifting up their saddlebags, and these, despite numerous attempts, failed to re-appropriate dovendovi give up and continue to observe, incredulous, hung on the branches and unreachable.

Amazed and awed from happening gathered in prayer asking God for an explanation of the prodigy. It is said that they were taken from a sleep immediately and appeared to them in dreams, Our Lady requested that in that place was built a church. As you wake began to build an altar at the foot of the plant dogwood. The plant is lowered and allowed the recovery of their bags.

The memory of the event was further illustrated in the paintings of the late fifteenth century in the church and in the seventeenth-century frescoes in the cloister of the abbey.

Above the Romanesque portal marked, characters with blacks and red initials as follows: «Did this work BECOME A brother of Andrew Cerones LEGAL ADRIENSIS Reverend previous owner JOHN (…) Ecclesie NEAPOLITANE HUIUS VENRABILIS Ecclesie sancte MARIE DE Provosts vicarius PECUNIA ipsius Provosts SUB Anno Domini MCC (…)»

Mario Moretti shows the transcription who made Vincent Bindi, which, the suo time, read: «HOC OPUS FECIT FIERI ANDREAS SIMONIS CANONICUS ADRIENSIS (…) ANN. D. MCCLXXXV"Which shows the date 1285, that other historians have deciphered as 1466. This dating of Bindi correspond to the date of construction of the small church consisted of a nave with apse, the facade of which was leaning against the entrance of the narthex below which opens the Romanesque portal surmounted by lunette containing the painting of the Madonna and Child.

Architecture

Annexed to the important and rich abbey, The present church has a Romanesque style with articulated structure minor influences lancet.

The main facade is enlivened by the stratigraphy of various construction operations as evidenced by the overlapping of work carried out in different periods. The original building, the foundation of which is attributable to the early medieval period, was subjected to two radicals transformation interventions: before the beginning of the twelfth century and the second with the enlargement of the plan to the fourteenth century.

The portion of the building which is oldest is constituted by a first Romanesque chapel, perhaps dating back to the twelfth century, which is recognizable by the oculo lower, simple lines and slightly off now than in the upper, from the small porch with pointed arches supported by columns and stubby from the bottom of the front.

At the beginning of the fourteenth century were added to the factory side bodies, that led to the breakdown of the classroom interior into three naves, the upper wall of the façade which ends with the crowning horizontal decorated with hanging arches interlaced, the rosette ring with terracotta, and the portal Atri. The property is dotted with elements of erratic fragments for reuse.

To the left of the main façade stands the bell tower added in the fifteenth century.

The Porta Santa

All'esterno, on the left side next to the small narthex, is a place rich stone portal attributed to the work of the workshop of Raimondo del Poggio and dated in the early fourteenth century.

The porta, this Porta Santa, is opened only 10 May and on Ascension Day in deference to a tradition of unknown date. It was reassembled here, at the behest of the Acquaviva, in the sixteenth century on the occasion of the celebration of a Holy Year. The article was moved from its original location in the wall of the presbytery of the church, where he was placed in the center of the apse of the chapel, which still bears recognizable traces left by the removal.

The characteristics of the decorations archivolt to all sixth, with four concentric rings, and the architectural style reminiscent portal run by Raimondo del Poggio, place on the right side of the Cathedral of Atri, so it is also defined as the "Portal Atri".

The Internal

The internal classroom, a basilica plan, now about three naves of almost equal size, punctuated by impressive with round arches refers to a structure of the Romanesque-Gothic style. The columns follow each other in showing semi-matching soffits. The area of ​​the sanctuary is elevated and begins to rise again towards the middle of the span terminal. The apses are formed by the movement of the last span.

At the height of the terminal area of ​​the nave are the remains of the walls of the apse of the small Church of the 1215, found and left exposed by the intervention of restoration work.

On the right there is a holy water font at the base of which rests on a smooth column capitals decorated with Romanesque overturned a lance-shaped leaves dropped by over two orders.

The frescoes

The church contains some frescoes inside including interesting are those in high places in the nave, in the wall of soprarco of the second span of the left, dating back to the 1499, as described under the image of the Virgin kneeling. These describe the miraculous event of the rapid growth of the plant dogwood, the apparition of the Virgin and the start of construction of the church. The stories appear within five logs at the base of each read a small caption, which consists of two lines written in the vernacular, describing what is shown. The theme is also composed of pictorial depiction of the Annunciation.

On the left wall of the counter of a brick-arched niche contains the remains of a valuable painting of the Crucifixion. The compositional distribution of the work depicted to the left of the cross sees the group of Marie supporting the faint of Sorrows, while to the right is St. John the Apostle and Mary Magdalene kneeling.

The cloister

Attached to the monastery cloister of the abbey there is also the, square plan, two rows of arches supported by pillars and terracotta brick under which there are covered corridors which can be accessed from the premises of the monastery. At the center of the inner courtyard, in the area of ​​the discovery, there is the well, of the sixteenth century, with the true octagonal brick surmounted by two columns supporting a sloping roof. The construction of the cloister took place at two different times. It is coeval with that of the church portico lower part of the early fourteenth century, with octagonal pillars, while in the sixteenth century were added arches and brick columns, round section, the upper loggia.

The lunettes of the cloister were painted in the early years of the second half of the seventeenth century. The historian Nicholas Palma attributed with performing the Polish master Sebastiano Majeski.

ACCOGLIENZA NEI PRESSI DI SANTA MARIA Propezzano: