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Sanctuary of Our Lady of the Holy Water in Marino: a church carved in rock
The Sanctuary of the Madonna dell'Acquasanta is located along the road leading from Marino to the Bosco Ferentano valley, in the Castelli Romani area. It is reached by descending a staircase of thirty-four steps, to find a church carved into the rock, with a spring flowing beneath the altar, believed to be miraculous.
An ancient fresco and a runaway horse
Everything revolves around an image of the Virgin — the Madonna holding the Child in her arms and a bowl of water in her left hand — dating to a period between the 4th and 9th centuries. For a long time, the image stood in a simple wayside shrine, until — probably in the 16th century — it was incorporated into the first core of the sanctuary. Popular tradition ties the cult to a specific episode: a man on horseback along the Via Maremmana Inferiore lost control of his animal, but was saved from the precipice thanks to the Virgin's intervention. From that moment on, the miracles attributed to her multiplied.
From the façade to the altar carved into the rock
The neoclassical façade in peperino stone, designed by Matteo Lovatti, features two Tuscan columns supporting a projecting architrave. Inside, a single nave opens up, remodelled between 1693 and 1720. The Rococo altar of 1759, hewn directly from a block of rock, encloses the ancient fresco set within a sculpted frame, beneath which the spring flows. In 1788, the priests Giovanni Andrea and Nicola Fico funded the side altar of the Most Holy Crucifix and the completion of the bell tower.
