The church of Santa Maria a Fiume is located in Ceccano in an area rich in archaeological remains from the Roman era.
Among them, a pagan temple dedicated to Faustina, wife of Roman emperor Antoninus Pius.
The shrine was built by the Counts De Ceccano on a previous Romanesque church in the twelfth century.
The church was consecrated in 1196 in a solemn ceremony described in the Annales Ceccanenses, chronicles of the Counts of Ceccano.
The building was enlarged and restored in the late thirteenth and mid-fourteenth century.
Two side chapels were added and beautiful paintings created by artists from the school of Giotto.
Since 1891 Santa Maria a Fiume was declared a monument of national interest.
During World War II the church was completely destroyed by an Anglo-American bombing.
Only the wooden statue of the Virgin remained perfectly intact. Some days before, in fact, it was perfectly packaged by the Germans to be kept in Rome.
The sanctuary was faithfully reconstructed using materials from the rubble and reopened for worship on July 26, 1958.
The façade is comprised of local limestone while the interior is sober and elegant enriched by architectural details in the Cistercian style.
Inside there is a beautiful finely carved pulpit, the font of the thirteenth century and many antique Roman inscriptions embedded in the masonry.
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