Sanctuary of Our Lady of Graces, Teramo

Outside the east city gate, the large square opens with the convent and the church of the Madonna delle Grazie, co-patroness of Teramo. The complex was probably founded in the 11th-12th century as a branch of the important city monastery of Benedictine nuns of “Sant’Angelo delle donne.” It was Saint James of the Marches who ordered the expansion of the structures in 1448 to house the Franciscans, also donating the splendid Virgin with Child, a sculpture by Silvestro dell’Aquila, which can still be admired today at the main altar. The renovations carried out between the late 19th and early 20th centuries involved the brick facade with portico and the interior, a Latin cross with side chapels and dome, decorated by Cesare Mariani in 1897. The Romanesque cloister aspect remains partially original. Notable is the detached fresco of the Majesty and saints set within a 15th-century architecture with pediment, preserved in a side chapel and attributed to Pietro Alemanno from Bologna.