Sanctuary of Maria Santissima Incaldana

On Via del Santuario, in Mondragone, stands the Sanctuary of Maria Santissima Incaldana, the town's historic mother church, founded in the 16th century under the Carafa as the collegiate church of San Giovanni Battista. Here the icon of the Madonna Incaldana is kept, painted on panel in Byzantine style, probably in the 14th century: the Virgin nurses the blessing Child. According to tradition the icon arrived here on a cart drawn by oxen with no driver.We like the Latin-cross interior, with a nave and two aisles, the dome frescoed with angels and Evangelists and the nave vault with Prophets and Patriarchs. We recommend reaching the monumental altar of the Madonna, in polychrome marble with a silver frame of 1740, and the chapel of the Blessed Sacrament with 18th-century stucco work. A sanctuary since 1953 and a minor basilica since 1990, its interior was restored between 2016 and 2018.