Chiesa di Santa Maria Maggiore

Santa Maria Maggiore stands on Sovana’s main square. The twelfth- to thirteenth-century church combines Romanesque and Gothic elements and preserves a rare early-medieval stone ciborium above the high altar.

Why it matters

The four-posted ciborium is an unusual survival from an earlier phase of church architecture. It remains in situ above the altar, offering a glimpse of the furnishings that preceded the region’s later Romanesque building campaigns.

What to notice

The ciborium’s carved surfaces feature stylised vegetal scrolls, animals and geometric patterns. The interior has three naves divided by broad arches and piers, with a timber-trussed roof over the nave. Sixteenth-century frescoes survive on the walls. Outside, two Roman funerary cippi stand beside the church. The adjacent sixteenth-century Bourbon del Monte palace presses against the older church front.

Context and history

Santa Maria Maggiore was built during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, when Sovana was the seat of an Aldobrandeschi county and a bishopric. The building combines Romanesque structure with Gothic features. In the sixteenth century, the Bourbon del Monte marquises built their palace alongside it. The ciborium is older than the church: it is dated to the eighth or ninth century in regional heritage descriptions and identified as a rare pre-Romanesque canopy by the Città del Tufo park.