Chiesa di Santa Maria

The Chiesa di Santa Maria is a Baroque church built on a Greek cross plan, a shape that gives the interior a pleasing, centred symmetry. The space is structured by a series of superimposed pilasters, from which the great archivolts spring, supporting a sinuous cornice. The visitor moves from a barrel-vaulted entrance, through an elliptical central dome painted with stars on a blue field, its pendentives bearing frescoes of the four evangelists, before reaching the presbytery, closed by a white marble balustrade.

The high altar, of sculpted polychrome marble, is flanked by two angel statues and crowned by a gilded wooden canopy fixed to the vault. Behind it stands an eighteenth-century walnut choir. Two side altars occupy the transept ends. Beside the Madonna altar is the wooden pulpit. A niche by the entrance holds the baptismal font, surmounted by a white marble relief of Christ’s baptism and closed by a wrought-iron grille. A simple wooden gallery overhangs the portal. The effect is a careful, harmonious composition of stone, wood and gilding.

Description via source. Coordinates and heritage data from the Atika atlas.