What to see · Scafati

More places of interest

• Chiesa di Santa Maria delle Grazie

  The church of the Madonna delle Grazie, also called Madonna dei Muroli, is a church in Scafati in clear Renaissance style. It has a Latin-cross plan with a single nave and a low dome over the transept. It once held fine paintings and works of art, lost in a theft at the beginning of the twentieth century, and today it is fairly bare.

  What to see

  In the presbytery rises the throne of the Madonna delle Grazie, with the painted wooden statue carved by an unknown artist around 1700. It is an unusual depiction: the Madonna offers an apple to the Child in her arms, while an angel holding two bunches of grapes invites the faithful to worship.

  The central nave is decorated with high reliefs, as are the inside of the dome and the presbytery. Along the nave are four chapels: on the right those of the Crucifix and of Saint Anthony of Padua, on the left one with the confessional and another where Saint Joseph is venerated. In the left transept is the privileged altar of the Sacred Heart, in the right one the Assumption; in the presbytery Saint Vitus and Saint Vincent Ferrer are also venerated.

  Visiting

  Opening and service times should be checked with the parish.

  Our editors' tip

  Ask about the legend of the statue: it is said that the Madonna delle Grazie drove away all the insects that were ravaging the harvest.

• Chiesa Madre Santa Maria delle Vergini

  The church of Santa Maria delle Vergini is the most important church in Scafati and faces piazza Vittorio Veneto, in the old centre near the river Sarno. It stands on an earlier building and took its present form around the fifteenth century, in Renaissance style, seen above all in the façade. It is dedicated to the town's patron saint.

  What to see

  The interior has a Latin-cross plan and three naves, the central one richly frescoed. Above the transept rises a highly decorated dome, frescoed by Vincenzo Galloppi with a lively scene of paradise and the Trinity at the centre, held up by four painted prophets. The largest work is the polyptych attributed to Decio Tramontano, with scenes from the life of Christ, on the altar built between the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries; there are also a Madonna of the Rosary attributed to Pompeo Landolfo, with popes, princes, kings and warriors around the Virgin, and a Madonna with the Souls in Purgatory signed by Fedele Fischetti and dated 1759.

  In a wing opening off the right aisle, the archconfraternity, stands the statue of the Madonna delle Vergini, in painted wood, carved in 1713 as the base says and attributed to Nicola Fumo. The Virgin shelters two girls under her cloak, a rich one, barely covered, and a poor one, covered well. According to legend the statue was bound elsewhere, but on reaching the bridge at Scafati it grew so heavy that the oxen could no longer move it, and it was taken into the nearby church.

  Visiting

  The church is on piazza Vittorio Veneto. Opening and service times should be checked with the parish.

  Our editors' tip

  It is said that during the eruption of Vesuvius in 1906 the statue was carried out to face the lava threatening the town, and that the flow stopped: since then the people of Scafati have given it crowns and medallions, including the crown of 1840 and the ring of stars of 1906.

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