We are now entering the main road, the heart of Maiori… noisy and full of life, it is the drawing room of the people of Maiori, a meeting place for everyone, for centuries the favoured place to stroll, make conversation and meet friends…

Halfway along the road on the left the shrine of "S.Maria delle Catene", in the XVI century the people had it built to give thanks to the Madonna after they were miraculously saved from the terrible corsair "Barbarossa". They were captured in pirate raids along the coast and were to be sent as slaves to Costantinople but devoting themselves to the Madonna, they managed to escape from the ships and laid their bonds at the shrine…

A few metres ahead and we are in piazza Raffaele D'Amato, where there is the Church of S.Rocco, built on the remains of the ancient church of S.Sebastiano "Intra Moenia" ( within the walls, of the bastion that gave it its name)… and devoted to the Saint who saved the people of Maiori from the terrible plague of 1656; on the altar is the ancient Coat of Arms of the city…

A dozen paces and between the buildings we find the "Holy Steps" entrance to the

Collegiate of S. Maria a Mare

Built on the mountain Torina where the stronghold of S.Angelo once stood, destroyed by the Pisans in 1137.

The original plan goes back to the chapel inside the fortress dedicated to St. Michael Archangel. Saved from destruction in the XII century, it was adapted into a Basilica to hold the statue of the Virgin miraculously found on the beach. The passing centuries brought about a series of transformations and enlargements and in 1836 the Neapolitan architect Pietro Valente gave it the actual disposition.

Admire the beautiful Dome tiled in majolica of green and yellow, typical of the coast, and the square bell-tower derived from one of the remaining towers of the ancient fortress.

Inside it has three naves :
The central nave has a splendid golden lacunas ceiling executed in 1529 by De Fulco. The side naves hold the chapels of , each with a statue or painting of the eighteenth and nineteenth century, a monumental pipe organ, opera of Master Zeno Fedeli of Foligno and on the high altar the polychrome statue of S. Maria a Mare;

In the eighteenth century sacristy and the crypt, there is a museum trail to illustrate the fantastic treasures held there, including::

The statue of the "Madonna Assunta" that every year on the 15th of August, the able mariners return to the church with a race up the Sacred Steps to mime the heavenly Ascension; A collection of miniated codes by Canto Fermo; A frontal of alabaster of gothic manufacture with sacred figures in bas-relief, the largest to be found in Italy; A wooden statue of the Madonna in Glory of the first half of the 1500's, work of Caccavallo or Diego de Siloè (1495- 1563); A reliquary in ebony inlaid with ivory of the XIV century; Pontifical furnishings including: a mitre set with gems, the cross for processions, a chasuble and cope in velvet.

Santa Maria a Mare

The statue carved in cedar of Lebanon, must be one of the few sacred images to escape the iconoclastic fury of the Byzantine Emperor Leone I Saurico (VIII century).

Taken from Constantinople by Christian merchants, it was found on the beach of Maiori in 1204,closed in a bale of cotton, thrown overboard ( to lighten a ship in a storm, to prevent a shipwreck).

Because of the miraculous find , the Madonna called S.Maria "a Mare" received from the people of Maiori instant affection and devotion. The third Sunday of November at the first light of dawn they celebrate the "Maronna 'e notte"(The morning Madonna), the escape from the floods of the XVIII century, the people of Maiori attributed to the heavenly intercession of the Madonna…

 

On the left of the building, incorporated in the Mother Church is

S. Maria del Carmine

seat of the ancient Arch-confraternity of the "Carmine" of 1535, on the inside a beautiful wooden choir stall, four large canvases by Guerra dated 1879 and an excellent Majolica pavement…

 

On the outside the steep via Vena that leads to Minori ( or rather the charming village of Torre, and then on to Minori), and from here you have a birds eye view of the entire gulf and Ravello…but that is Minori's story…