Santa Maria della Sorresca, Sabaudia

The colony of Santa Maria della Sorresca occupies a small peninsula on the eastern shore of Lake Paola, a short distance from the modern town of Sabaudia, and is surrounded on the landward side by a strip of wall without towers. Inside this slender protective structure there is a large two-storey building, which was intended to combine residential functions with the productive needs of the fish farm, and a chapel, flanked by a sturdy bell tower for sighting and passive defence.
Despite the succession of Benedictine, Cluniac and Basilian monastic communities from the 10th century onwards, the current layout of the complex seems to derive from the transformations promoted by the Knights Templar from 1212 onwards when, after a long dispute, it was granted emphyteusis to the Roman preceptory of Santa Maria in Aventino, who kept it for almost forty years.

In 1259, the tenimentum of Sorresca, together with the much more remarkable locum of San Felice Circeo, was ceded by the knights to the future Cardinal Giordano Pironti in exchange for a farmhouse not far from Rome which, being adjacent to other properties of the order, made it possible to aggregate a vast estate between via Laurentina and via Ardeatina.

After a brief passage under the control of the Annibaldi family in 1301, the Caetani family took over and maintained the use of the Sorresca until 1565, when they became the definitive owners.

The chapel consists of a bare room with a single nave, covered with modern farmhouses, concluded on the east side by a small apse where in the lower part there are the remains of a veil delimited at both ends by red columns, while the large spaces give a glimpse of an older painting, the plot of which, however, cannot be reconstructed. In this part of the building there is also a precious 14th century wooden statue of the Madonna and Child, the object of a deep-rooted cult that qualifies Sorresca as the main Marian sanctuary in the area.

Contact details

 

Santa Maria della Sorresca

Via Santa Maria, 04016 Sabaudia (LT)

Tel: +39 338 920 6578

https://www.santuariodellasorresca.com/