Santuario Diocesano di Santa Maria Goretti

The diocesan shrine of Santa Maria Goretti in Corinaldo occupies the former Augustinian church of Sant'Agostino. Its eighteenth-century architecture provides the setting for devotion to the saint born in the town in 1890.

Why it matters

The sanctuary connects Corinaldo's conventual history with the twentieth-century development of Goretti's cult. Her memory adds a new dedication to a religious site with much older origins.

What to notice

The brick facade leads to a single-nave interior with a transept, dome and lantern. Painted pendentives depict the cardinal virtues. A copy after Barocci's Annunciation and other sacred paintings belong to the church's artistic furnishings. The high altar contains a silver urn with an arm-bone relic of Maria Goretti; this is distinct from the shrine at Nettuno associated with her body. A Callido organ dated 1767 survives above the entrance.

Context and history

The earlier church of San Nicolò was absorbed into the Augustinian complex. The church was rebuilt between 1740 and 1756, and the adjoining monastery followed in the later eighteenth century. Maria Goretti died in 1902 and was canonised in 1950. The subsequent dedication of this church as her shrine linked an existing architectural ensemble with a new devotional role.