"Madonna della Libera" Church

The sanctuary, situated in the Montagna district, is a modern structure with an elliptical layout in reinforced concrete built in 1980 on a design by the architect Baldassare Antonimi. It rises up on the ruins of a church, dating back to the nineteenth century and dedicated to the ‘Madonna della Libera’, that collapsed following the earthquake in January 1968. The dedication comes from the “ficarara”; families that in the summer devoted themselves to the preparation of dried figs and gathered together to pray in the small rock church, originally born as an offering to the Virgin and as an omen for the liberation of evil spirits. The architectural structure of the sanctuary, with its curved lines, evokes the form of two arms that, resting on the earth, join hands towards the sky in prayer.