In the historic center of Trieste and a few steps from the Roman Amphitheater, on a large staircase built in 1956, stands the Church of Santa Maria Maggiore, a unique example in Baroque style among the churches of the city. The church is popularly known as the Jesuit church to remember that its construction was commissioned by the Society of Jesus, which arrived in Trieste in 1619. After the construction of the Jesuit College, in 1627, which later became an Austrian criminal prison and an Italian women’s prison, it was the first stone for the construction of a large church dedicated to the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
The works went on for a long time and continued even after the consecration of the Church in 1682 and the suppression of the Society of Jesus in 1773. The Church after the canonical extinction of the parish of S. Giusto Martire in 1774 and due to its size and architectural beauty became one of the most important religious buildings in Trieste.
The interior of the Church is attributed to the Modenese Jesuit, perhaps a designer, Giacomo Briani, while the eighteenth-century facade to the Trentino Jesuit, painter and architect, Andrea Pozzo. Above the central door of the majestic and monumental facade, in Baroque style, a sun-shaped frieze with the letters MRA (Mary Queen of the Angels) stands out and a small Jesuit hammer is visible in the wrought iron grate below.
The interior has a Latin cross plan and is divided by two rows of pillars into three naves. The hemispherical octagonal dome was destroyed by fire and rebuilt in 1817 by Giovanni Righetti. In particular: in the left aisle there is the chapel of the baptismal font in white marble, on which stands the statue of John the Baptist and the vault of the ceiling is frescoed with scenes from the New Testament;
in the right aisle stands the altar dedicated to the Madonna delle Grazie erected in 1853 by Baron Pasquale Revoltella in memory of his mother Domenica; the large canvases of the Via Crucis appear on the side walls of the aisles, a work of great value by the Trieste artist Carlo Wostry; the statue of the risen Christ rests on the dome of the tabernacle of the main altar; in the apse a large tempera fresco depicts the Apotheosis of the Immaculate Conception. To the left of the main altar there is the Chapel of the Crucifix and the altar “of the Good Death”, a gift from Bishop Giovanni Francesco Mueller in 1713 and, on the left side, among the works you can see the canvas of Christ in the tomb, by Carlo Wostry of 1894.
The chapel to the right of the main altar is dedicated to the Madonna della Salute and inside is the painting of the Virgin, donated in 1841 by Domenico Rossetti. Triestines are particularly devoted to the Madonna della Salute. Since 1849, the year in which the cholera epidemic broke out in the city, every year, on November 21st, the people of Trieste gather in the Church to renew their devotion to the Madonna. Bishop Antonio Santin in 1957 wanted to place the chapel with the miraculous statue of the Madonna dei Fiori in via del Teatro Romano at the origin of the feast of 21 November. The sixteenth-century marble bust depicting the Madonna and Child was found, around 1830, by an innkeeper whose nickname was Fior and on 15 October 1849 to implore the cessation of cholera it was carried in procession and on 21 November of the same year brought back in procession by grace received.
Under the Church of Santa Maria Maggiore there are the Jesuit Undergrounds which have always attracted the attention of art scholars and mystery lovers. Authors of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries such as Pietro Kandler, Ettore Generini, Giovanni Machorsich and the collector Diego de Henriquez, took care of the basement of the college. They retraced and described them. Today the fascinating rooms of the underground can be visited in complete safety thanks to the interest of the Parish of Santa Maria Maggiore and the volunteers of the Urban Speleology Section of the Adriatic Speleology Society.
