Cattedrale di Santa Maria Assunta

In the upper quarter of Sermoneta, the Cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta brings together Romanesque fabric, Gothic-Cistercian rebuilding and Renaissance painting. Its works include a lunette fresco attributed to Pietro Colaberti da Piperno and Benozzo Gozzoli's Madonna degli Angeli, painted around 1452.

Why it matters

The cathedral is the principal church of Sermoneta. Its layered architecture and furnishings reflect successive periods of the town's history, while Gozzoli's altarpiece marks an important arrival of Renaissance painting in the area. The Virgin in the painting holds a model of Sermoneta.

What to notice

The Romanesque bell tower projects from the left side of the facade. The entrance is framed by a Gothic portico with two pointed arches and marble columns. In the lunette above, a fifteenth-century fresco depicts the Virgin and Child with Saints Peter and Epaphroditus; the 2025 protection decree attributes it to Pietro Colaberti da Piperno. Inside, three naves lead to a square apse and chapels with scenes from the life of Mary. The Cappella De Marchis holds Gozzoli's Madonna degli Angeli, dated around 1452. Other works include a sixteenth-century Madonna with Saints Anne and Joachim, a fifteenth-century Last Judgment, a wooden crucifix and a statue of the Madonna della Vittoria.

Context and history

Local accounts date the church's origins to the twelfth century and report that it was built over the remains of a temple of Cybele. It was rebuilt in Gothic-Cistercian forms in the thirteenth century, possibly by craftsmen connected with Fossanova. Eighteen walled-up single-light windows preserve traces of the earlier Romanesque fabric. Eighteenth-century additions were removed in 1973. After the plague of 1456, Gozzoli's altarpiece was installed in the chapel then known as the Cappella degli Angeli.