Santuario Diocesano di Santa Maria Maggiore

Santa Maria Maggiore is a Baroque church and diocesan sanctuary in Trieste, popularly known as Sant’Antonio Nuovo. The church stands in a small square opposite the Romanesque Basilica of San Silvestro. Its present form grew from a Jesuit church begun in the seventeenth century.

Why it matters

The Jesuits arrived in Trieste in 1619 and opened their college the following year. Bishop Rinaldo Scarlicchio laid the church’s first stone on 10 October 1627; it was consecrated on 11 October 1682, while work continued. When the Jesuits were suppressed in 1773, secular clergy took over. In 1774 the old parish of San Giusto was divided, with Santa Maria Maggiore serving the old town and a new parish established for Sant’Antonio Taumaturgo. The church became a diocesan sanctuary by decree of Bishop Giampaolo Crepaldi on 21 November 2011.

What to notice

The church has a Latin-cross plan, with three aisles covered by a barrel vault. Jesuit Giacomo Briani is associated with the main body of the church. The dome was rebuilt in 1817 after a fire. The façade, attributed to Jesuit Andrea Pozzo, was completed in the early eighteenth century and is arranged with architectural orders, statues and a curved pediment. Inside are altars and the side chapel of the Madonna della Salute, the focus of the city’s annual November devotion.

Context and history

The Madonna della Salute devotion is linked to a civic vow made during the cholera epidemic of 1849. After the epidemic subsided, a thanksgiving procession and Mass took place on 15 October 1849. The annual feast is observed on 21 November, the day of the Presentation of Mary. Diocesan clergy returned in 2001, and the Franciscans of the Immaculata arrived in October 2011. A statue known as the Madonna del Fior is associated with the sanctuary’s account of the devotion.