Church of Santa Maria della Rocca, 14th century
(on the right: S.Maria della Rocca by night)

In the year 1039 Longino d’Azzone, a gentleman from Offida of Frank or German origins, gave to the Abbey of Farfa (that in the Marche region had its main religious centre in S. Vittoria in Matenano, in the territory of Fermo) a large part of his possessions that extended from the Tronto to the Aso rivers, from the Polesio (Mount Ascensione) to the Adriatic Sea. He also donated the Castle of 0ffida and the church of S. Maria della Rocca.

Offida became a possession of the Benedictine monks around the year 1047, after the abbot of Farfa, Berardo I, had settled the donations of Farfa with the bishop of Ascoli, Count Urbano.

The former small church of S. Maria was partly demolished when the monks were about to build the new church, in the year 1330, as written on an inscription in a corner of the external wall of the church.

The new church, should have been wider than the earlier church; therefore two corridors had been made out of the old walls and the new ones; one of them was assigned to cemetery use.

Portal of the crypt

The church should also have been longer than the former church. Thus, the monks built a cenoby on the south side of the church and next to it.

As reported by the local architect Vincenzo Petrocchi, the author of a study on the matter, the modifications are more evident for a projecting line of bricks against the wall, below the larger windows.

This would also be confirmed by the perspective plan worked out by Ferdinando Fabiani from Offida, in 1694.

The cenoby likely consisted of a ground floor used as an arcade-cloister and also of a first floor assigned to the cells.

In the middle of the cloister was a well, which is still there. The cenoby had been widened to East with the construction of the new sacristy. Up to some time ago, clear traces of plaster would show such modifications, more evident on the east side of the tower and in the corresponding south area of the apse.

To testify the modifications, again, is a door, now walled up, situated beside the right-hand chapel.

Three front doors led into the crypt; two of them stood to the South and were used by the monks; the other door, to the North, was for the parishioners.

In the 16th century, after the 1511 plague, the whole crypt likely became a burial ground, while the upper floor of the church was completed and totally cut off from the lower floor.

At present a spiral staircase, in the inside, leads to the crypt.

In the 16th century, the Offida people had realized that, for their own good, it would have been better to have a local prior rather than a foreigner. Therefore, the representatives of the town people, through the abbot feudal count of Farfa, Cardinal Ranuccio Farnese, asked and obtained that the monks of Farfa would retire from S. Maria in 1562.

As a consequence of that, a College of priests was found; it consisted of eighteen religious men, among which monks and priests who decided that the prior should be a monk from 0ffida.

In 1735 the upper part of the church underwent other modifications by order of the bishop of Ascoli, monsignor Paolo Tommaso Marana (bishop from 1728 to 1755).

Toward the end of the eighteenth century the annexe outlying monastery was demolished and part of the material was used for the construction of the new Collegiata (the works started in 1785).

At the beginning of the 20th century, against the bell tower, was built the actual residence to be used by the church attendants. On the 17th of April, 1887 had been worked out a first project for a supporting wall to be erected on the north side of the cliff, upon which stands the church.

Santa Maria della Rocca

In 1891 the church became an ownership of the Commune. In 1893 the Ministry of Public Works, by note of March the 21st, entrusted the Department of Regional Monuments of Ancona, with the drawing up of a new project to reinforce the whole structure, for an amount of 6202,28 Lire. Considered that the project was too expensive, they decided to build only a wall in the north side of the cliff.

The works were carried out under the direction of engineer Cesare Micheli.

Because of the rainfalls which - near the end of 1896 - had caused further damages, the church needed to be reinforced. The works started in 1914 and had been completed by 1927, when the trusses were replaced and the roof was restored.

By a note of the 28th of June, 1940 the local podestà (the local authority of medieval times, n.d.t..) asked to heighten the supporting wall in the upper part of the cliff facing North.

The 1943 earthquake had seriously damaged the monument; the upper part of the bell tower collapsed but it would have been rebuilt, later on, lower however than the former one.

By 1946 the works of reinforcement of the cliff had been completed. In the years 1972-73, during the excavation inside the church of S. Maria della Rocca, were found two eleventh-century tomb lead plates with inscriptions referring to Wburga and Retrude, respectively daughter and wife of Longino d’ Azone.

So far, such plates are kept by the Monuments (and Fine Arts) Office of Ancona.

The last restoration works of the frescoes, the reconstruction of the roof with wooden frameworks identical to the earlier ones, the setup of the crypt and the flooring works have been done in recent years and started in 1974.

The official reopening of the church was on the 2nd of June, 1986.

Crypt and Upper floor

A glimpse of the crypt

The church stands on a cliff to the West of 0ffida. It has a square-base bell tower, on top of which is an octagonal-pyramid shape cusp.

The church is a Romanesque-Gothic fired brick edifice, scanned by elegant travertine pilasters and adorned, on top, with a double line trefoil arches.

The crypt stands on top of a staircase enclosed between two walls; the fourteenth-century spiral portal is carved in travertine marble and shows foliage and animals figures.

Crossed the doorway of the crypt, you come into a polygonal hemicycle (central apse) whose vault consists of four fired brick columns in the Lombard style and capitals rounded off to the angles and decorated with ovals (niches) supporting ogee and round arches.

In the central apse are frescos by the Master of Offida (14th-15th centuries): "the mystical wedding of S. Caterina", to the left; "S. Cristoforo", "the Madonna with Child and two angels", to the right.

To the right, again, an ancient travertine funerary urn which is now used as holy-water basin.

On both sides of the hemicycle there are two polygonal chapels divided into gores by ribs that, from ground, rise upward to the middle of the vault.

On the altar of the chapel-apse, to the left, leans a sandstone slab crossed, in the upper-middle part, by a groove; they think that the stone would come from a pagan altar and the groove was there in order to let flow out, within the cup of the priest, the victims' blood.

In the chapel are kept other frescos by the Master of Offida: "S. Caterina of Alessandria, the Annunciation”, among them, and to the left on the wall near the chapel,"The Madonna del Latte”, “S. Ludovico da Tolosa”, “S. Onofrio and S. Stefano"and last, "The Virgin with child and S. Antonio"dating from 1423, by the Master Ugolino di Vanne from Milan (14th-15th centuries).

In the chapel-apse to the right, other frescos by the Master of Offida:

"The life of S. Lucia", "The Crucifixion", “Coronation of the Virgin Mary", "The Madonna of the Mercy and S. Giovanni the Evangelist."

Other four columns and two pillars separate the hemicycle and the chapels from the remaining crypt.

Going up three brick steps you enter the so called primary church.

It is divided in three parts by two rows of columns and two rows of half-columns against the walls.

The columns are all fired brick columns, except one that is a stump of travertine column.

The bases too are made of fired brick, except one which is made of travertine marble. On the southern outside wall, are three small round arches windows and a doorway.

On the north side there is only a small window and a grave enclosed with a masonry.

The floor, made of terracotta tiles, is of recent date (1986).

Crypt, chapel-apse to the right

To the West and beyond the wall of the small church, is a space divided in four parts by three rows of columns. At the space end, to the right, a small spiral staircase leads to the upper part of the church, Latin cross-shaped, with a single aisle outlined transept, characterized by trusses placed there in order to be seen.

The side walls are bare and cut off, to the South, by three oblong large windows, two of which are open while the other one is walled up.

The large window on the south side of the transept has been recently reopened. On the wall and in the ambo, to the right, are other works by the Master of 0ffida; respectively “The Burial of Jesus"and "The Crucifixion."

On the left-side wall is a pictorial work by Brother Marino Angeli of S. Vittoria (15th century), portraying "The Madonna del Latte with S. Sebastiano"

At the far end is the apse, lightened by two oblong windows and decorated with ribs which, from ground, rise upward and meet to the top of the vault.

In the basin of the main apse is a work by the Master Ugolino di Vanne from Milan showing "Seven Prophets, eight Holy Virgins, ten musician Angels."

In the lower left side of the main apse is a fragment of votive fresco, commissioned by the local commander Baldassarre Baroncelli, dated 23rd November, 1423.

In the lower part, in the middle of the main apse, is the "Escape to Egypt"by the Master of Offida. On the north wall, half height, is an ambo with a sixteenth-century wooden statue showing "S.Benedetto of Norcia".

Inside of the upper Church

To reach the ambo you must go up a small staircase enclosed with the wall depth.

On the opposite side stands another ambo that, in ancient times, contained a wooden choir with organ.

At the ambo end, to the right of whom enters, is the baptismal font where the Beato Bernardo of 0ffida was baptized.

The upper floor of the church can also be easily reached by an external fired brick staircase.

The main façade, to the West, is vertically divided in three parts by pilasters with a travertine portal supported by small travertine pillars. The portal itself is dominated by a beautiful oak wood rose window.

Some of the paintings kept in the church of S.Maria della Rocca.