Nemi

Santa Maria del Pozzo Church

The church, built in the 7th century, is one the biggest and most beautiful of the area. It was erected to replace the Chapel of the Palace, which had been demolished to make space for the extension of the castle.

Given that the chapel was named after the Madonna de puteo eminente (literally Madonna of the important well – as it was close to a well which was probably the reservoir of the castle) the name of the new church remained the same.

Later, following the restoration of the façade at the beginning of the 19th century, the inscription Deo et Beatae Virgini in Coelum Assumptae was written on the pediment and can still be read today.

The single-nave church features lateral chapels and a transept as well as an organ from the church Ara Coeli in Rome, which was made in 1847 and placed here in 1936. A wooden triptych by Antonio Aquili, known as Antoniazzo Romano, is also found inside the church (dated between the second half of the 5th and the beginning of the 6th century). The painting, of great artistic value and recently restored, depicts Christ in the centre with St. John the Baptist and St. John the Evangelist on the side panels.