The church of Santa Maria delle Grazie is the oldest church in Pozzuoli, the see of the diocese of the same name; in the past it had jurisdiction over a vast territory, which included Pozzuoli, Agnano, Bacoli, Bagnoli, Licola, Miseno and Monte di Procida.
What to see
In 1948 the church was enlarged with apses at the end of the naves and enriched with the gilding of the ceiling, with the paintings of the dome's pendentives by the Pozzuoli painter Leon Giuseppe Buono (1887–1975), with the marble floor, the marble stair of the pulpit and the polyphonic organ. After the works of 1975 the new altar, made by adapting the wings of the earlier high altar, stands on a white marble platform under the dome: it was consecrated by Bishop Salvatore Sorrentino on 18 October 1975 and relics of Saint Valentine the martyr were placed in it. In the left aisle are the polychrome wooden statue of Saint Leonard of Noblac, with a marble altar of 1736, and the statue of Saint Paul, with an altar of 1737; in the transept a canvas by Giacinto Diano of the Last Supper, of 1760. In the right aisle can be seen the wooden statue of Our Lady of Sorrows, the statue of the Immaculate Conception with two paintings by Nicola Malinconico or his school, the chapel of the Sacred Heart and of the Blessed Sacrament and, in the transept, a canvas attributed to Diano with Saint Joseph with the Christ Child and Saints Nicholas and John the Baptist.
The church was built at the start of the sixteenth century, in the area of today's piazza della Repubblica; in the second half of the century a hospital was built next to it that took its name, still kept today by the new hospital. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries it was enriched with new altars and chapels and in 1825 it was restored at the expense of Bishop Carlo Maria Rosini and the Municipality; but in winter it was almost always invaded by seawater and corroded by damp, so it was decided to demolish it and rebuild it from the foundations: the project was entrusted in 1858 to the architect Achille Catalano and the works ended at the end of 1860. Because of the bradyseism of 1970 the church suffered serious damage and underwent radical consolidation, from December 1973 to October 1975; further work followed the earthquake and bradyseism of 1980.
Visiting
The church is in Pozzuoli, in the area of piazza della Repubblica. Opening hours and times of services should be checked on the official site, santamariapozzuoli.it.
Our editors' tip
In the left apse look for the chapel of Saint Blaise, with the polychrome wooden statue of the saint: it was built, with all its furnishings, in 1639 by a confraternity of shopkeepers, butchers and bakers of the district, and was demolished and enlarged in 1948.
