Vicopisano | Church of the Via Crucis

The small church of Maria Addolorata or, as it is better known, of the Via Crucis is one of the newer churches in the area, but is interesting for its architectural features and location.

It stands atop the Mirra Hill, where one reaches it by walking up the slope marked by the 14 recently restored Stations of the Passion, (the Way of the Cross).

The 1720 church was donated to the community by Francesco Gattai together with the inheritance that was to help the poorest girls in the village. The donor’s coat of arms is on the triangular tympanum of the façade, anticipated by a three-arched portico supported by Doric columns. The one-nave interior preserves the pietra serena altar, a valuable pair of confessionals, the stoup and the tombstone of Gattai’s burial. The entire construction is the result of a successful application of 18th-century canons, mediated by a rational geometric layout in the Renaissance style. Its position, on the top of the hill from which there is a beautiful view of Vicopisano and the surrounding plain, is quite remarkable.