The shrine of Santa Maria della Sanità is a monumental church in the hill area of Castellammare di Stabia, in the hamlet of Quisisana, belonging to the parish of Santo Spirito.
What to see
On the site of the present shrine stood, from about the fourteenth century, a small church dedicated to Saint Thomas the Apostle and Saint Mary Magdalene, flanked by a monastery of the nuns of San Bartolomeo, moved in 1583 into the town, near the church of the same name, as laid down by the Council of Trent. The little church soon fell into ruin and in 1657 the sacred objects were moved to the cathedral. From April 1717 an interior wall of the church, partly collapsed and covered in brambles, on which a Madonna was frescoed, was cared for by a poor old woman, who paid a farm labourer to clear it of weeds and prayed every day and lit a small lamp. Gravely ill, with no hope according to the doctors, she later told that the Madonna had appeared to her in a dream; a few days later she was miraculously cured and the place became a destination for pilgrimages. Bishop Biagio De Dura, having verified the miracle, began raising funds for a new church dedicated to Santa Maria della Sanità: the first stone was laid on 10 May 1717 by Monsignor Filippo Plagese and the church was consecrated on 1 July; in 1722 it was raised to an abbey and in 1766 its rector was given the title of abbot. In 1906 enlargement works began, wanted by Abbot Pasquale Cacace and directed by the architect Catello Calvanico, who above all rebuilt the façade and the bell tower; the church was consecrated again in 1908 and in 1911 the fresco of the Virgin was crowned. The Irpinia earthquake of 1980 made it unusable and it reopened only on 2 May 1991.
The main entrance is on the side of the structure: the portal, protected by an iron gate, is topped by a fresco reproducing that of the Madonna della Sanità; the façade ends in a gable and has a small round window like a rose window. The interior is a single nave, with a majolica floor and a ceiling divided into compartments with tempera works by Pietro Russo to designs by Gaetano Cappa. On the high altar is a painting of the Resurrection; the altar table, of the nineteen-eighties, reuses the marble of the one of 1769, and the tabernacle is a gift of the nuns of San Bartolomeo. Beside the main entrance, built into the structure, is the small bell tower with six bells.
Visiting
The shrine is at Quisisana, in the hill area of Castellammare di Stabia. The sources consulted give no opening hours or visiting arrangements: check them.
Our editors' tip
On the right-hand altar is the fresco of Santa Maria della Sanità, with a crown of gold and sapphires, the work of the Neapolitan goldsmith Vincenzo Catello.
