This church known previously as La Madonna dell’Assunta [Our Lady of the Assumption] once stood in the old mediaeval hamlet of Amendolea. In 1869 it was renamed Maria Santissima Annunziata [Our Lady of the Most Holy Annunciation]

Following flooding in 1953 the name was transferred to the church in the new town of Amendolea, to become a sanctuary at a later stage. In 1965 the new church was officially consecrated and, in 1995, the head of the sixteenth-century statue of the Madonna, which in the meantime had been replaced by a copy, was found again by pure chance.

Inside, the church contains a single nave.

Principal works of art

The Madonna con Bambino [Madonna and Child] in white marble comes from the church of the S. Maria della Gurda monastery. It is believed to be a personal reworking of Michelangelo’s Pietà, sculpted, most probably, by an artist close to Montorsoli. On the base, along a circular band that supports the work, runs the following Latin inscription: Saxea sum sed si fertis pia vota praecesque mansuetu duro marmore numen erit [I am made of stone, but if you bring vows and prayers, God will be mild, despite being of hard marble]. On the sides of the central façade of the plinth, containing a scene from the Annunciation, we find the symbol of Amendolea, an almond, and the coat of arms of the bishop of Bova, Giovanni Camerota (1592-1620). Some claim, however, that the plinth may not refer incontestably to the sculpture it supports.

From the church of the Annunciation of Old Amendolea comes the ciborium [tabernacle] now on the left-hand side of the church in the hamlet of New Amendolea. This is a popularesque version of a Renaissance model, clearly due to the influence of Mazzolo. The work dates from the first half of the sixteenth century and still bears traces of the original colours and gilding.