santuario, diocesano, Santa Maria Assunta

The Chiesa di Santa Maria Assunta is a Norman church of the twelfth century, though repeated remodellings have left little of its original fabric visible. The baptismal font and two sculptures on the central portal are the clearest surviving testimony to its medieval origins. It was consecrated on 3 October 1799, and elevated to a Diocesan Marian Sanctuary by Monsignor Giovanni Rizzo on 8 September 1960.

Local tradition tells of a “Madonna dei Carbonai” or “Black Madonna” discovered in a sack of charcoal, after a donkey bearing the load knelt near the sacred site. The charcoal burner’s shouts drew a crowd; when the sacks were emptied, the sacred sculpture was found and placed on the high altar of the left chapel. On the façade, an inscription reads “Vetus Themesinorum Basilica aere publico refecta”, the old basilica of the Themesini, restored at public expense.

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