Chiesetta della Madonna della Neve

The Church of the Madonna della Neve occupies the former Porta della Castagnera, a tower-gate in Conegliano's Carrarese walls. Its compact interior preserves a frescoed Marian image and later works by local artists.

Why it matters

The oratory is a striking example of a medieval defensive structure adapted for religious use. After the city passed to Venice at the end of the fourteenth century, a sacred image was placed in the gate tower; the oratory developed around it within roughly a century.

What to notice

The Madonna del latte, or nursing Virgin, is attributed to Giovanni Antonio da Meschio and was painted shortly after the mid-fifteenth century. Francesco Beccaruzzi added angels in the sixteenth century. The quadrangular room follows the shape of the former tower chamber, while its present appearance is largely eighteenth-century.

Context and history

The church is first recorded in 1544 as dependent on the pieve of San Leonardo in castello. Its earlier dedication was to the Madonna del Torresino; by the mid-seventeenth century it had taken the name Madonna della Neve, associated with the tradition of the August snowfall at Rome's Santa Maria Maggiore. A restoration by the local Alpini section in 1992 renewed the oratory and its medieval setting.