Santuario di Santa Maria del Giglio

Santa Maria del Giglio stands on the hillside above Bolsena. The sanctuary grew around a Marian image associated with a lily, developing from a small devotional shrine into a church and Franciscan convent.

Why it matters

Offerings to the image record a long connection between the shrine and the town. In 1512 the commune paid for a silver crown by Antonello di Piediluco, an early sign of the devotion that supported the sanctuary's growth.

What to notice

The single nave contains side altars with scagliola fronts, whose coloured plaster imitates decorative stone inlay. A painted ceiling associated with the Franciscan Giorgio Firmano and wooden confessionals by Vincenzo da Bassiano add to the seventeenth-century furnishings. The high altar combines polychrome marble with alabaster details. The venerated Marian image carries the lily that gives the sanctuary its name.

Context and history

The church developed through successive enlargements during the sixteenth century; its design has been tentatively attributed to Vignola. In 1604 the Friars Minor took custody and undertook to build an adjoining convent. Their presence helped shape the interior and tied this hillside sanctuary to the wider Franciscan history of Lake Bolsena.