Cattedrale di Santa Maria Maggiore

The mother church of Vasto stands a step above Piazza Rossetti, outwardly severe and inwardly rich: a medieval foundation rebuilt into three naves in the eighteenth century, keeper of a holy thorn brought from Spain by the d'Avalos, and hung with canvases by Solimena and works attributed to great Venetian painters.

Why it matters

A document of 1195 names Santa Maria Maggiore; tombs of the d'Avalos marquises line its interior, and the church preserves the relic known as the Santa Spina. Municipal material calls it the town's cattedrale, though the formal diocesan co-cathedral seat in Vasto is San Giuseppe.

What to notice

The church's features include a thirteenth-century campanile with a medieval base and later Baroque orders; the nineteenth-century Santa Spina chapel, which holds a thorn believed by the municipality to come from Christ's Crown of Thorns; two 1727 canvases by Francesco Solimena; works attributed to Paolo Veronese and to the school of Titian; tombs including those of the d'Avalos marquises and madrigalist Bernardino Lupacchino; a crypt with relics of San Cesario; and a late-Baroque facade with a semicircular crowning and rusticated portal.

Context and history

The church's documented life begins with a diploma of 1195, when Emperor Henry VI confirmed the "ecclesia Sancte Marie" at Guasto to the Benedictine abbey of San Giovanni in Venere; tradition carries its roots back further still. Ottoman raiders damaged the building in the assault of 1 August 1566, the same attack that scarred the castle and much of the coast. A fire in 1645 tested the town again, yet the Santa Spina survived it. The decisive remodelling came in 1783–85, when the medieval hall was opened into three naves; the nineteenth century added embellishments in the same spirit, producing the neoclassical dress and late-Baroque interior seen today. In 1902 the building was declared a national monument. The Archdiocese of Chieti-Vasto was created in 1986. Its cathedral is at Chieti, while San Giuseppe is the co-cathedral seat in Vasto; Santa Maria Maggiore is the city's historic mother church rather than the formal diocesan cathedral.