Sanctuary of Our Lady of Graces, Teramo

Outside the eastern urban gate of the city opens the large square 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 wanted to enlarge the structures in 1448 to house the Franciscans, also donating the splendid Virgin with Child, a sculpture by Silvestro dell’Aquila, which is still admired today at the main altar. The renovations carried out between the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century involved the brick facade with portico and the interior, with a Latin cross plan with side chapels and dome, decorated by Cesare Mariani in 1897. The partially original aspect of the Romanesque cloister remains. Notable is the detached fresco with the Majesty and saints inserted in a fifteenth-century architecture with pediment, preserved in a side chapel and attributed to Pietro Alemanno from Bologna.