The church of Santa Maria Stella Maris is in Vasto Marina, where viale Zara meets piazza Rodi. It was built in 1903 on part of the grounds of the villa of Alfonso Marchesani, who gave the land so that the people of the seafront would have a place of worship without having to climb up to the town: the area had been left without one after the landslide of 1816 destroyed the little church of the Madonna known as «Cona a Mare». At first it had a single nave; in 1925 the two small side aisles were added, in 1929 the rear part was extended according to the original plan, and on 21 December 1930 the church was consecrated again.
What to see
The façade is Neo-Gothic, stepped, divided in three by pillars and pilasters: a triangular gable rises above the rose window, and the pointed portal has a majolica lunette with the Virgin and Child. The side sections have pointed windows, and the bell gable, at the back, has two openings. The friars' small house beside it also follows the Neo-Gothic style, in its windows and battlements.
The interior has a nave and two aisles, divided by pillars with pointed arches; the nave has ribbed cross vaults and ends in a semicircular apse. The statues are of wood from Ortisei: Our Lady of Sorrows with the dead Christ, the Sacred Heart, Saint Joseph and Santa Maria Stella del Mare. By the altar is a copper font of 1960, the work of Luigi Santarelli of Vasto.
Visiting
Opening and Mass times should be checked on the spot or with the parish of Vasto Marina.
Our editors' tip
From the little church destroyed by the landslide a triptych of the Virgin and Child by Michele Greco survived, now in the cathedral of San Giuseppe, in the upper town. In 1954 work began in the Montevecchio district on a larger church for the Marina, dedicated to the Immaculate Conception: it was never finished, and the ruin was demolished to make way for the motorway viaduct.
