Basilica della Madonna dell'Ulmità - Pistoia - Tuscany

The current building was built on the site of the former little church of Santa Maria Forisportae, so named because it was built outside the first circle of walls and just outside the Porta Vecchia.
The church was dedicated to Our Lady of the Assumption of Mary. In 1382, a painter had painted a fresco of the Madonna of Humility, ie not seated on a throne, according to an iconography particularly popular in Italy between the 14th and 15th centuries.

According to tradition, on July 17, 1490, amid the raging strife between the Panciatichi and Cancellieri families, some saw three thin streams of an enormous amount of lye pouring from the forehead of the humble statue, almost as if the Virgin was suffering from the helpless watch of so much fratricide. Thrilled by this celestial signal and driven by the devotion that immediately arose around the miraculous icon, the most important families of Pistoia decided to build a Renaissance shrine that would commemorate this episode in a dignified way.

The church was consecrated in 1582.

In October 1931 Pope Pius XI elevated the church to a minor basilica.
The basilica is one of the buildings most closely associated with the history and image of Pistoia in architectural, urban and religious terms.

The interior of the basilica is rich in works of art that adorn each of the six altars placed around the large circular space on which are placed the dome and the presbytery designed by the Pistoia native Jacopo Lafri; the austere vestibule, which occupies the space that once housed the small medieval church, was enriched from 1720 with large frescoed panels.

The balustrade from 1597 with bronze columns encloses a marble dossal that was built in 1612 by sculptor Pietro Tacca and architect Lafri. The miraculous image was moved to the center of the dossal.

In the apse is a painting on wood by Bernardino del Signoraccio from the San Mercuriale Monastery, depicting the Madonna and Child and the Saints Mercuriale and Benedict (1493).
The Treasure of the Madonna
Equally valuable, if not more valuable, is the so-called "Treasure of the Madonna", a collection of sacred furniture belonging to the basilica and whose significance not only, not so much in the arts, but also in social and the city's religious history. Below this is the silver ciborium, the work of the Florentine goldsmith Giovan Battista Mariani, donated in 1630 by the Cavalier Fabio Tolomei as a thank you for escaping the plague. Even more exceptional, though less well known, is the basilica's textile heritage, which includes some absolute masterpieces, such as the 17th-century tablecloth made of Venetian needlepoint lace. Witness to the town's devotion is a rich collection of votive offerings, some of which in silver depict the body parts on which the miraculous workings of Our Lady worked, while others are jewelry or other personal objects particularly dear to those who donated them .

Willem Vandenameele