MONUMENTS PROVINCE OF RIMINI

MONUMENTS RIMINI

Church of Our Lady of Graces

The Franciscan sanctuary of Our Lady of Graces, the most ancient in the Diocese of Rimini, stands on Covignano hill, which offers a splendid view over the whole southern Riviera of Romagna. The origins of the church are bound to the legend of a young shepherd, who in 1286 carved an image of Our Lady on a tree trunk.  The boy being unpractised was unable to finish the image, so angels came to finish and embellish the image. The image, then carried in the church of San Marziale in Venice, is still venerated as the “Rimini Madonna”. In memory of the miraculous event on the hill of Covignano was built a chapel that became in 1391 a church dedicated to Our Lady of Graces. The Church of Our Lady of Graces was enlarged in the sixteenth century and heavy damaged during the Second World War. The right-hand fourteenth-century nave and the annexed cloister were severely ruined and afterwards rebuilt, maintaining the quiet beauty of Franciscan buildings. In the Church of Our Lady of Graces are preserved notable works of arts, as, above the High Altar, the fifteenth-century altarpiece depicting the Annunciation by the Umbrian painter Ottaviano Nelli, in the past attributed to Giotto, and numerous and interesting votive tablets. Worth mentioning is the Gothic portal of the façade.