Santuario dell'Incancellata

At Casalini, near Corinaldo, the Santuario dell'Incancellata grew around a devotional image of the Virgin nursing the Child. The image remains above the high altar, behind the grille that may have given the shrine its name. The sanctuary is also associated with the childhood of Maria Goretti, who prayed there before her family left the Marche.

Why it matters

The shrine began as a roadside aedicula in the locality of Casalini, also known as Pozzo Antico. In 1586 the Martinelli family gave the image to Corinaldo's Arciconfraternita del Gonfalone. A chapel and later church developed around it as devotion to the image grew.

What to notice

The focal point is the Madonna del latte fresco behind the cancellata, which separates the presbytery. Restoration in 2007 revealed a late-Renaissance image in an Umbro-Marchigian manner; the official account compares it with the circle of Pinturicchio. The present presbytery preserves the older shrine-chapel within the church rebuilt in 1690. A San Gaetano by Giovanni Anastasi, commissioned in 1625, hangs on the right altar. A painting by Mirco Manoni in the first altar on the left depicts Maria Goretti at prayer.

Context and history

The confraternity built a custodian's house and a loggia for pilgrims as the shrine's following grew. A well inside the church, fed by a stream, was associated in local accounts with healing; this is a history of devotional belief, not a verified medical claim. The grille took its present form in 1625, and the 1690 rebuilding preserved the older bay behind it. The official account links the shrine's name to this cancellata.