Just outside the walls of the historic centre, near Piazzale San Francesco, stands the small church of the Blessed Virgin of Mercy, known locally as “La Madonnella”.
At Piazzale San Francesco, just outside the town walls, stands a small, ancient church dedicated to the Blessed Virgin of Mercy, popularly known as the Madonnella.
It was probably built around 1300, when the Municipality of San Felice belonged to the Caetani family. It stands on an older site, presumably Roman or late antique. The presence of two structures can be seen from the old ground floor, much lower than today’s floor level, which reveals a series of seven niches arranged in a semicircle, supporting the partly buried vault of the apse. The chapel was raised and enlarged in 1822 and further embellished in 1856. Of great value are the frescoes, very probably from the 13th century, by an unknown artist. The portraits are very fine, though sadly badly damaged by time and high humidity. Among the figures, besides religious ones such as God the Father, Christ, the Virgin and the angels, there is an interesting portrait of what is presumed to be the patron, painted kneeling with his hands in prayer. The most interesting part of the decoration is the one that gives the church its name, the Pietà, which has many similarities with the painting of the same subject in the church of Santa Maria in Fondi. This resemblance has given rise to many theories attributing the work to the artist Giovanni da Gaeta, while others rule this out, as it would make the paintings almost two centuries older.
Another, much more modern Pietà was placed above the altar during the 1822 rebuilding, showing the Virgin holding her Son by the cross, with Mary Magdalene bending over his feet.
Since 1927 it has often also been called the “Little Church of the Fallen”, because after the First World War two marble plaques listing the names of those who fell in the war were placed in its entrance room. Every year on 4 November, the day dedicated to the fallen of all wars, a public ceremony is held with wreaths of flowers. A few metres from the church stands the old flagpole, once in the town’s main square.
