Travelcast Piceno - Audio & Video Guide per la Provincia di Ascoli Piceno

San Martino is one of the oldest areas of Grottammare, and here we also find remains from the Roman era. We see the first one upon nearing the church: it is a large portion of a wall in opus caementicium, brought to light by the archaeologist Gamurrini in 1886. The church had been an object of study and interest for centuries, especially regarding the location of the Temple to the Goddess Cupra. It is a discussion that has been opened and never completely resolved and that has even brought the Monuments and Fine Arts Office to undertake excavation work on the building on more than one occasion, with the goal of finding more remains. The Temple of the Goddess Cupra, in this complex and lengthy dispute between scholars, is continually shifts between the towns of Grottammare and Cupra Marittima.

Without going deeply into the details of the case, let us simply note what has been found and what is near the building and within the church. At the end of the 1800s, not far away from this site, Gamurrini also unearthed a circular tub dating from the Roman period with significant name of “The Queen’s Bath”. Upon nearing the church we notice over the entrance portal a fragment of a foot carved from marble that belonged to a Roman statue, yet it is only upon entering the building that we are able to see the most important evidence, the one that had been the origin of the question that has fed the discussion: a marble tablet that is in the wall in front of the lateral door. The contents of the epigraph commemorate the restoration of the Temple of the Goddess Cupra that was undertaken by Emperor Adrian in 127 AD.
It is impossible to affirm or negate the existence of the pagan temple in this place prior to the edification of the medieval church. Nowadays we have nothing but a quite simple church, with its façade in stucco. It is subdivided into three naves with the central one higher than the lateral ones. The establishment of the building is attributed to the Farfa Monks, probably dating from the 9th century, as the first document that attests to the existence of the Monastery of San Martino de Tesino is from 1030. We are able to understand the importance of such an institution by a later document, from 1193, in which Emperor Henry VI confers all of the property of the abbey to the Abbot Gualterio, with the annexes, the churches, the mills and the castles, including one that is listed here as that of Gructa, that is, Grottammare. That such a place is relevant to the history of the town is indicated also in an important local tradition, the Fair of San Martino, which is celebrated every year on the feast day of the saint, the 11th of November.
The Sacra Giubilare (Holy Jubilee) is also celebrated here each time that the First of July falls on a Sunday. This holiday is a solemn secular and religious one that has its very roots in an antique legend that narrates how, in 1175, Pope Alexander III, during a voyage from Palermo to Venice, was forced to take refuge with his fleet of ships in the harbour of Grottammare due to a violent tempest. Given hospitality by the Monks of the Monastery of San Martino, the Pope witnessed the festivities that traditionally took place on the First of July and was struck by the participation of the faithful who intervened in even greater numbers in his honour. That induced Alexander III to decree, with a Papal Bull, Plenary Indulgence for anyone who would visit the church every time that the First of July fell on a Sunday. This was a privilege that was reconfirmed by Pope Pius VII in 1803.
Within the church, behind the principle altar, there is an interesting fresco that is worth observing carefully. Recently restored, it is dated to the 15th-16th centuries and we see it bordered with a thick wooden frame. The figure represented is the Crucifixion with the Madonna, the Pope and a Bishop, with his mitre and pastoral laid on the ground. The Grottammare Castle is depicted in the background. Also worthy of attention is the fresco of the Madonna of Milk, dating from the 12th century and which was covered by a copy from the early 1900s. It was possible to bring it to light only after careful restoration work.

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