The Asculan shrine of Saint Emygdius at the Grottoes, rocky Arcadia of the “Patron in Earthquakes”
Interesting emanation of the Roman Arcadia is the shrine of Saint Emygdius at the Grottoes (1716-21),
erected in the outskirts of Ascoli Piceno as ex voto after the earthquake in 1703: center of an anti-seismic
worship spread into Italy since then. Harmony arises from suggestive dissonances, within architecture
itself more than between it and nature. If the tuff rock seems retouched in Bernini’s rocaille mode, in
picturesque coherence with the sculptural facade leaned against, interpenetrate elements like the flat
prospect with wings and the elliptic domed porch carry out a curious transfiguration of the cortonesque
facade of Santa Maria della Pace in Rome. The project is ascribed to the Asculan Giuseppe Giosafatti,
educated in Bernini’s workshop, author of the realization. Any doubt remains in Roman direction, because
of strict relations with academic manners of the Clement XI age.
