Chapel of Santa Maria a Macerata

Along the Via Appia state road, in the Macerata area east of central Caserta (not to be confused with Macerata Campania), stands the Chapel of Santa Maria a Macerata. It is mentioned as early as 1113 in the Bull of Senne and for centuries was a rural chapel looked after by hermits. Next to it lay the cholera cemetery during the epidemic of 1836-1837. Restored around 2010, it has returned to worship.The building, lower than the road level, is oriented in the medieval manner. Inside the single nave we love the apse fresco of the Madonna del Latte, probably from the 17th century, and the altar frontal that tradition says was donated by Ferdinand IV. Around it lies a park of about 3,800 square metres enclosed by a 19th-century wall, with holm oaks, cork oaks and carob trees: we recommend a break in the shade of the trees.