Chiesa dei Santi Marta e Biagio

Marta's principal parish church is dedicated to Saints Martha and Blaise. Known as the Collegiata, it combines a seventeenth-century foundation with later additions and a rich devotional interior.

Why it matters

The paired dedication joins the town's patron saints in a single religious centre. Its collegiate name recalls governance by a chapter of canons, while the history of its rebuilding records the community's participation in replacing an earlier church.

What to notice

A single nave is lined with side altars and devotional paintings. The main altarpiece brings the patrons together with the risen Christ: Martha has the dragon of her traditional iconography, and Blaise carries the comb associated with his martyrdom. Rosary and Carmelite imagery adds other strands of Marian devotion. The later facade and bell tower give the exterior its eighteenth-century character.

Context and history

After the old church of Santa Marta collapsed in the early seventeenth century, rebuilding was resolved upon in 1617. The replacement was blessed in 1627 and consecrated in 1732. Further works continued through the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, including completion of a masonry vault. Devotion to Blaise, protector against ailments of the throat, has remained an important element of the church's local religious identity.