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Church of the Madonna di Rosella
This is the church of the Ripa di Cassano, located at the end of the long descent of Via Bagnulo. Dedicated to Our Lady of Graces, the church is better known as the Church of the Madonna di Rosella, in reference to a famous local legend. It is said that a woman from Piano di Sorrento, Rosa Maresca, known as Rosella, prayed to the Madonna for her son’s healing through an icon of the Virgin. When her son recovered, she had the painting restored, and from that moment it became an object of veneration for the people of Piano di Sorrento.
It was Ferdinand IV who authorized the construction of the little church in 1794 to house that painting. The year before, in 1793, the engineer Giuseppe Maresca had designed the project. The church was inaugurated in 1798 in the presence of the Archbishop of Sorrento, Monsignor Silvestro Pepe. The famous Rosella died in 1817 and, according to tradition, was buried in the same church, though the exact location of her grave is unknown.
The church has a single nave and a simple Baroque façade, with a three-tiered bell tower on the left side, featuring single-light windows and an apsidal roof. Inside, it houses an elegant lacquered choir loft and a monumental organ. The main altar, made of polychrome marble, is adorned with a balustrade and surmounted by a sixteenth-century painting attributed to Andrea da Salerno, depicting Our Lady of Graces. Also notable is the wooden confessional with a pulpit.
The painting of the Madonna di Rosella, oil on canvas, was crowned during a ceremony on June 10, 1888, after a novena, in the presence of the Bishops of Sorrento, Nocera, and Stabia, and the Mayor Domenico Cota. Earlier that year, on January 2, the two golden crowns used for the coronation had been blessed by Pope Leo XIII.
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