The basilica and shrine of Santa Maria di Pozzano is a minor basilica and a shrine in Castellammare di Stabia, in the hamlet of Pozzano, on the hill. The painting of the Madonna di Pozzano, co-patron of the city together with Saint Catello, is venerated here; it belongs to the archdiocese of Sorrento-Castellammare di Stabia and is run by the parish of the church of the Spirito Santo.
What to see
A first small church was built near the well where, according to tradition, the painting of the Madonna di Pozzano was found; it dates from the start of the fifteenth century, attested in 1419 by some privileges of Joanna II of Naples. From 1447 it passed to the Franciscan friars, whose readmission was confirmed in 1506 by Pope Julius II; a larger church was soon rebuilt, with work from 1506 to 1539 and the financial help of the Gran Capitán Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba. In the eighteenth century the shrine knew its greatest splendour: the church was enlarged, the sacristy was rebuilt in 1754 to a design by Luigi Vanvitelli and the interior was enriched with works by Sebastiano Conca, Girolamo Cenatiempo and Giacinto Diano. With the nineteenth-century suppression of religious houses it fell into ruin; it was consecrated again on 26 June 1874, the image of the Virgin was crowned on 2 July 1875 and the friars bought back church and convent in 1895. In 1916 Pope Benedict XV raised it to the rank of pontifical basilica. Bombing in the Second World War did heavy damage and the works begun in 1947 led to the demolition of the cloister with frescoes of the life of Saint Francis; after the 1980 earthquake the restorations ended in 2006, and in 1994 frescoes by Sebastiano Conca were found in the choir transept.
The interior is a Latin cross, thirty-eight metres long, with a very wide central nave and two narrow side aisles; the coffered ceiling, of 1675, has a panel and two canvases by Michele Regolia. The eighteenth-century high altar, of polychrome marble, has on either side two canvases by Paolo De Matteis of the Nativity and the imprisonment of Saint Jerome. In the left transept the chapel of the Madonna di Pozzano houses the painting in a sort of small domed temple, faced with Sicilian breccia with mother-of-pearl and lapis lazuli. The sacristy, also called the chapel of the crucifix, keeps the wooden crucifix found in 1631 and three large paintings by Sebastiano Conca of its finding on the sea waves, with the apotheosis of Saint Francis of Paola, of 1769, by Giacinto Diano, on the ceiling. In the crypt, reached by a stair from the central nave, is kept the well in which the painting was found; it was rebuilt at the start of the twentieth century and consecrated on 24 April 1904. The bell tower, thirty-three metres high, has an octagonal belfry and a clock in light-blue maiolica, and also served as a lookout tower against the Saracens.
Visiting
The basilica is at Pozzano, in the hill area of Castellammare di Stabia. The sources consulted give no opening hours or visiting arrangements: check them.
Our editors' tip
Just before the entrance, in a panoramic position, is a cross at whose foot stands a marble column found in 1585 in the excavations of the church: according to the sources it proves that a pagan temple dedicated to Diana already stood here in Roman times.
