Monumento alla Madonna

A chapel and tall stele on Colle Michelangelo carry Fiuggi's Monument to the Madonna, a landmark rising about thirty metres above the town. The statue was made by sculptor Iorio Vivarelli in 1959 and was funded by the people of Fiuggi, particularly the Falconi family.

Why it matters

The monument brings together civic generosity and Marian devotion. Padre Francesco Celani helped realise the project, and an inscription on the base records Filippo Falconi's gift to the people of Fiuggi. The hill, formerly known as Capo le Ripe, stands above both the medieval borgo and the modern spa district.

What to notice

The monument's vertical composition begins with the chapel dedicated to the Immaculate Conception, rises along the stele and culminates in the Madonna's statue. The total height is about thirty metres. The statue was cast at the Fonderia Michelucci in Pistoia and bears Vivarelli's 1959 date. Its base inscription reads: “Filippo Falconi dona al popolo di Fiuggi.”

Context and history

The work was funded through contributions from the town, with substantial support from the Falconi family. Pope John XXIII blessed the statue at Castel Gandolfo before it was installed above Fiuggi. The monument reflects the town's mid-twentieth-century civic life, when public works and devotional landmarks reshaped both the medieval hill and the spa district below.