Sanctuary of Santa Maria Apparve

The church was built and opened in 1529. For the miracles and many graces granted by intercession of Our Lady, including especially the removal and overcoming of the plague and liberation from the dangers of earthquakes, the church of Santa Maria Apparve a large number of faithful. The Latin inscription, which adorns the picture on the apse of the church, from which the image of Mary, with the Child Jesus in her womb, is benevolently and benedictively addressed to the faithful, attests to the work of Our Lady’s rescuer: “In peste sanitas, in terremotu securitas”. In 1855 a terrible cholera epidemic broke out throughout Italy: the people and authorities of Montalbo, in the reappearance of the danger of an epidemic, remembered the promises made by Our Lady to the shepherd boy and, again using the patronage, on August 12, they promised a new and larger temple, for which the Montalboddo City Council decided to invest 400 scudi. On 12 September the cholera ceases to rage and the citizens of Montalboddo go in procession of thanksgiving towards the rustic church of Sana Maria Apparve. In 1857 work began on the new church, which was solemnly opened to the public on 2 July 1860. In December 1884, however, it was impossible to replace the chaplain and the church had to remain closed for some time and without daily celebrations and festive, to the great disappointment of the faithful. We turned to the Order of Franciscan Friars Minor, which after the suppression of religious corporations and the confiscation of their assets following the Unification of Italy, after the loss of the convent of Santa Maria del Popolo, They had not been able to find a new accommodation in the city. The Order accepted: next to the church was built the convent, and the church itself, with only one nave, was enriched by four chapels, adorned with paintings and equipped with apse. On 15 August 1915, by decree of the Vatican Chapter, the venerated image of Santa Maria Apparve was solemnly crowned with a golden crown.