The Sanctuary of Macereto is a Renaissance-style chapel or Marian shrine in Visso, province of Macerata, Marche, Italy. Built between 1528 and 1538 around a rustic 14th-century chapel housing a venerated statue of the Madonna, it is located in the Parco Nazionale dei Monti Sibillini.
History The sanctuary is on a site formerly occupied by the medieval castle of Macereto, built below Mount Grotagna. Its strategic position controlled intersecting routes that crossed the inhospitable Sibilline chain of the Apennine Mountains. 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.
Routes of the Pilgrims For pilgrims travelling from the west to the destination of Shrine of Loreto from the 13th century onwards, the Flaminian and Salarian roads would have been the safest and most travelled routes. Saint Basso in Cupramarittima was the stopping place along the way 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.
In this small region, Visso and Camerino vied for control of traffic and the local population. Camerino, the older town, had a better position to control the huge number of traffic that came through the narrow pass at Muccia on the Flaminian road. The Camerinese were keen to control the routes through to southern Italy. The castle at Grotagna, that came to be called Macereto, was often disputed in the fierce rivalry with Visso, and when 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.
Naming Macereto as a place was first documented in 1255, when a landholder of the region, Tiboldo di Farolfo of Nocria sold this and nearby properties to Visso In 1259, the Count Magalotto dei Magolotti sold to Camerino a number of properties, including the Macereto Castle and its people.Venanzangeli, p. 14. A rivalry between the boroughs heightened, because neither of these sales was entirely legal, since much of this desolate and barren land had never been formally recorded; thus the intramilial feud changed into an inter-communal feud.
In 1277 Visso burned down the Camerinese Apennine Castle, which was subsequently rebuilt. In 1313, Camerino destroyed the Castle of Macereto with the help of the Duke of Spoleto. This castle was also rebuilt.
Pope Boniface IX tried to mediate, assigning the Rocca di Macereto to the Counts Bante and Apollonio, sons of the papal notary Cataldino Boncompagni. By the end of the 14th century, the Boncompagni left the isolated Castle of Macereto and moved to Visso. In 1499 in one of the ensuing battles, the Camerinese killed Cataldino Boncompagni, forcing the family to emigrate and sell off the title to Visso. This left Castle of Macereto under the official control 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 and truce 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". 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 at Macereto, a great and artistic sanctuary."Venanzangeli, p. 30.
Origin of the Sanctuary
The Macereto plateau had been grazing lands for shepherds transiting from Mounts Sibillini to the territories of Visso and Norcia, and the Roman plains, between the end of September and the beginning of May.Grazing routes described by Varrone (in Rerum Rusticarum) and Columella (De re rustica) In the Macereto plain, flocks could come and graze without encroaching on each other. This led to annual summer sheep fairs (fiere), which continues to this day.
The altopiano of Macereto was also traversed by a road running from the Marche to the Kingdom of Naples. With the increasing flow of pilgrims, the fiera of Macereto gained importance.Paciaroni pp. 183–184. A small shrine likely already existed at the spot before the miracle, tended by the shepherds.
The sanctuary at Macereto supposedly was erected after a miracle. A wooden statue of the Madonna and Child (Madonna di Macereto) by an unknown master was being transported across the mountains as a gift from the Marca di Ancona to the Kingdom of Naples. On 12 August 1356, the animal that hauled the wagon with the statue halted here at Macereto, a spot the Madonna putatively chose.In Il Quattrocento, Raffaele Casciaro of Camerino, described the statue as "the most famous work, and therefore the eponymous piece, of a group of anonymous sculptures 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 carvings, the iconic system of the image, is transfigured in an embrace of overwhelming sweetness", while others described it as an "idyll of love, tenderness and sublime devotion".Venanzangeli, pp. 76–78. This sweet and sentimental style of carving was popular in The Marche; similar statues exist in Castel Sant'Angelo, Caldarola, Visso, Preci, Camerino and Sarnarno. It is unclear if the sculptor derives from Umbria or Siena.
By 1414, miraculous healings had been attributed to the statue; for example, one Angelo di Forsivo had regained sight in the presence of the statue. The chiesetta became filled with ex-voto gifts and many tokens were also given to the church of Santa Maria in Visso. By 1486, the chiesetta was a common stop on the pilgrimage route to Loreto. (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 p. 100.
The shrine became 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, p. 28. 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 cardinals Marco Rovere and Teodoro Leli", also, in 1503 "when Pope Alessandro VI died, the tyrannical Duke Valentino took over the area near Visso. The bishops 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. Some state Niccolo's first name was not Marca, but instead he was likely a governatore of Marca.
In 1510, the fame of the Madonna of Macereto motivated the Duke of Camerino, Giovanni Maria Varano and his party, to move the statue from Macereto to Camerino. The Vissani however intercepted the party at the Varenesi crossing. In the ensuing battle, the statue was irreparably damaged. The Bishop Bonafede of Chiusi 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: income earned from the land that was already owned by the sanctuary, 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 wealthy patrons. Connected with The Church, these donations assuaged the guilt perhaps felt by the very rich. 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.
This ambitious project was carried out by sizable donations of Visso, left after pilgrimages and endowments by the devout, like Cristoforo Pierangel from Ussita, who died in 1524 "near the sanctuary where he had gone in ill health".Venanzangeli, page 31. By the 1520s 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, p. 39. The Collegiata administered the funds until 1562 when irregularities were noted, for example, "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 26 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, p. 32.
The Architects of the Sanctuary In 1527 the Collegiata and the Commune of Visso entrusted Master Gian Battista da Bissone with the design of the Sanctuary. He had designed and built Palazzo Ottoni (1452) and Palazzo Piersanti in nearby Matelica. Also involved was Master Filippo Salvi from Melide, Switzerland who had worked on the Santa Maria della Consolazione (Todi) at Todi. Some theorize the original circular design was by Donato Bramante. But Bramante, Salvi and Gian Battista da Lugano all fled Lombardy at about the same time.
The facts are that when Bramante went to Milan in 1480, where he was employed on creating the dome for the church of Santa Maria delle Grazie. "By 1490, centralized structures not unlike those of Bramante's St. Peter's or Santa Maria della Consolazione at Todi had appeared amongst Leonardo's sketches."Bruschi p. 44