The hamlet of Madonna dell’Acqua is located close to the city of Pisa, between the Via Pietrasantina (where there is the tourist bus parking) and the Via Aurelia. It owes its name to the Church and Sanctuary of the SS Conception that houses an image of the Madonna, protagonist of a miracle. . In 1642, near the bridge over the Dead River, there was an image of the Madonna in majolica, protected by a wooden shrine, attributed to the French school of the seventeenth century. In the autumn, a prolonged period of torrential rains transformed the area into a swamp, with serious damage to agriculture. Moreover, the violent swirling of the waters caused the collapse of the bridge and the loss of the sacred image. In those very difficult days Our Lady showed herself in a dream to some young girls, revealing that the flood would cease only when it was recovered and placed in a place worthy of the sacred image. According to tradition, this rumor, spread by the peasants and the inhabitants of the plan, reached the managers of the Office for Rivers and Ditches who began to search, together with the farmers and recovered the image immersed in the water. As if by magic the rains ceased and the rays of the sun illuminated a miraculously dry Madonna. In homage to Our Lady and in time to bear witness to her gratitude for the ceaseless danger, the church was built which preserves the venerated image on the high altar.
The façade has a sober brick covering, ennobled by an elegant portico. The interior has two naves with pronaos and is decorated with stucco and gilding. It houses three altar frontages depicting the Theological Virtues as well as a cycle of eighteenth-century frescoes with scenes from the life of Mary, the work of the Pisan painters Giovan Battista Tempesti and Mattia Tarocchi.