santuario, mariano, Maria SS.ma Addolorata

Above Airola, where the Valle Caudina begins to rise, stands a sanctuary dedicated to Maria SS.ma Addolorata, a place of devotion for the local faithful who gather here for September’s annual celebrations, through the month of May, on Sundays, and on the great liturgical and Marian feast days. Its spiritual care is entrusted to the Passionist Fathers of Monteoliveto.

The church and its adjoining monastery were first built in the fourteenth century, on the orders of a local feudal lord, and given to the Benedictine monks of Montevergine. This early structure, Santa Maria dell’Ariella, was almost entirely destroyed during a siege of Airola’s fortress in the early sixteenth century. As the town shifted from the hill of Monteoliveto down to the plain, a new monastery was begun in 1608, and the old church fell into long disuse. It was restored and reopened in the late seventeenth century at the behest of a local noblewoman.

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