Mother church of Santa Maria del Colle

The mother church of Santa Maria del Colle, Mormanno’s cathedral, stands on Piazza Umberto I, the town’s main square. It was built around 1700 and consecrated on 5 September 1790 by Monsignor Paolino Pace, bishop of Vico Equense and a citizen of Mormanno; its rebuilding in late Baroque style enlivened the town’s artistic life in the 18th century. It is in Neapolitan Baroque style, on a Latin-cross plan with a nave, two aisles, transept and apse. The façade, designed by Pietro Scardino da Padula and built entirely in tuff, has three portals: above each is the coat of arms of one of Mormanno’s three confraternities, the Most Holy Sacrament in the centre, the Good Death or “Agonizzanti” on the left and the Souls in Purgatory on the right. Above the portals open three windows; the central one is a stained-glass window of the Madonna of the Assumption among angels, recalling the town’s patron saint, celebrated on 16 August.