L’architettura come spazio per la liturgia: l’interno di Santa Maria Maggiore a Ferentino alla fine del Duecento

Abstract

My essay deals with the interior of Santa Maria Maggiore in Ferentino (in the modern province of Frosinone), one of the most
important buildings erected in southern Lazio in the Middle Ages. In particular, the set-up of the liturgical space dates back to
the last years of the thirteenth century on the basis of the phases of building construction.
In spite of the small number of documents, especially medieval ones, their critical interpretation made it possible to understand
that Santa Maria Maggiore was a collegiate church entrusted to a secular college of canons (neither monks nor friars), which
had nothing to do with the Cistercian Order. Starting from this evaluation, the comparison of archaeological data, coming from
surveys and direct analysis of the masonry walls, with those obtained from documentary and iconographic sources allowed me
to formulate reliable hypotheses on the design of the interior space and the arrangement of liturgical furnishings. As in almost
all medieval churches, the original appearance of Santa Maria Maggiore was altered after the Council of Trent in the sixteenth
century and then by the restorations between the eighteenth and the twentieth centuries.