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The Collegiate Church of St Mary of the Assumption in Anguillara Sabazia: Baroque at the Summit of the Lakeside Promontory
The Collegiate Church of Santa Maria Assunta dominates Anguillara Sabazia from the highest point of the promontory overlooking Lake Bracciano. From the terrace beside the church the view is extensive: water, wooded hills, the outline of Trevignano and Bracciano in the distance. A church dedicated to Mary already existed here in 1489, but by the 16th century it was in such poor condition that the decision was taken to rebuild it from scratch.
The 18th-Century Reconstruction
Work began in 1765 based on a design by Nicola Lorenzo Piccioni, later completed by Giuseppe Scatuzzi. The church reopened in 1782, and was consecrated in 1794. The façade came almost a century later. It was completed only in 1888 based on a design by Antonio Jacometti, with projecting sections adorned with pilasters and Corinthian half-columns, three portals and as many large windows. The tufa block bell tower, built in 1780, replaced the previous one.
Muziano, Jacometti and the Madonna of Roccamaggiore
The three-nave interior has a sober layout — round arches on quadrangular pillars — but the high altar in polychrome marbles is pure Baroque. Resting on it is the Assumption of Mary with Saints, painted in 1592 by Girolamo Muziano with the assistance of Cesare Nebbia. In the right chapel the Madonna of Roccamaggiore is housed, a 15th-century panel retouched in the 16th century. In the adjoining oratory, the plaster casts by Ignazio Jacometti — the Kiss of Judas and the Ecce Homo — are the models for the marble sculptures that Pope Pius IX commissioned for the foot of the Scala Santa (Holy Staircase) in Rome.
