Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore

First mentioned in 852 and consecrated in 1206, the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore stands below Tuscania's acropolis hill. Its facade combines tufa, nenfro and marble around a rose window; inside are a medieval octagonal baptismal font and a large Last Judgment fresco.

Why it matters

Pope Leo IV's bull of 852 is the earliest written mention of a church already standing on this site. It was consecrated on 6 October 1206. The church is regarded as the first cathedral of the ancient diocese of Tuscania and stands near the Via Clodia on ground once occupied by Roman baths. Scholars have debated whether it preceded or followed the upper church of San Pietro, underscoring its importance to the study of Romanesque architecture in this part of Lazio.

What to notice

The facade combines reused and rearranged decorative pieces. In the central lunette, the Madonna's feet project over the architrave. The deeply splayed white-marble portal has twisted columns, crouching lions and a lunette with the Madonna and Child, Balaam on the donkey, the Sacrifice of Isaac and the Agnus Dei. The apostles Peter and Paul in the jambs were partly rebuilt after vandalism. Classical foliage decorates the right portal; the left arch has Norman-Sicilian ornament. Above, a loggia of nine columns and ten arches runs between a lion and griffin. The rose window has two orders of twelve columns, with symbols of the four Evangelists at its corners. The truncated bell tower is probably twelfth-century.

Inside, three naves in six bays retain painted columns and pillars. An eighth- or ninth-century carved pluteus serves as the altar frontal beneath a Gothic ciborium. The right nave holds a thirteenth-century octagonal immersion font, and the central nave a medieval pulpit assembled with early-medieval fragments. A fenestrella in an altar at the head of the left aisle recalls the church's relics and martyr burials. In the apse, a thirteenth-century frieze of the Twelve Apostles sits below a large fourteenth-century Last Judgment attributed to Gregorio and Donato d'Arezzo; the patron Secondiano appears among the elect.

Context and history

Earthquakes and rebuilding shaped the facade's layered appearance. The church is state-owned and entrusted to the heritage authorities for conservation. Structural work has affected the building in recent years.