Oratorio di Santa Maria Maddalena

The Oratorio della Maddalena is considered a major cultural symbol of popular religion and local traditions, kept alive by the Brotherhood of S. Maria Maddalena e del SS. Crocifisso. The single chamber building has a choir separated from the nave by a three-arched structure of which the centre arch frames the altar and is home to the noted model grouping, Grieving for Christ. Dating from the first half of the 16th century, the coloured terracotta piece was fired in situ and depicts eight figures who are gathered around Christ taken down from the cross, the only statue foreign to the original composition. The end of the apse is taken up with a series of ascending levels which display the remarkable wooden Calvary, 23 full-size statues carved between 1591 and the beginning of the 1600s. The Oratorio preserves a precious silver and glass urn containing the relic of St. Prospero, obtained from the Confratelli on the Pilgrimage to Rome in 1750.