The current building, with its clean volumes, has a Greek cross plan at the center of which rises a dome resting on a tall octagonal drum. The main façade opens to the west, while two other portals open to the north toward the town of Cursi and to the south toward Muro Leccese.
On the main portal, the broken pediment holds at its center a statue of the Virgin of Abundance with the Child in her arms. At her feet are two cornucopias, symbols of fertility, accompanied by a cartouche bearing the following inscription: “TAM CONCUSSIT FULMINE PIETAS SATANICO / INVIDUS HOC INSTRUXIT TEMPLUM OPPOSIT.” The statue is attributed to Giovanni Donato Chiarello, a sculptor from Copertino and the creator of the high altar.
The portal bears the date on its lintel: the year 1694.
In 1708, following a violent storm, part of the building caught fire, causing the dome to collapse. The reconstruction work simply involved restoring the dome and the southern side, which was also damaged.
**Description:** The statue of the Virgin with the Child, made of painted wood, most likely in the first half of the 18th century (post-1670, pre-1734) and adorned with a wig and richly embroidered garments, is of unknown authorship.
**In use between:** 1670 and 1734
**Image:** Statue
**Description:** The fresco, located at the center of the high altar and dating to the first half of the 15th century, depicts the Virgin with the Child. The Mother holds the Child with her right arm and, with a tender gesture, offers Him a small fruit (a pear or fig) with her left hand. Her mantle covers her head, revealing her wavy hair, while the deep neckline of her dress, adorned with precious trimmings, exposes her neck. The sweetness of their gazes and the Virgin’s head inclined toward the Child evoke the “Vierge de Tendresse” type. The offering of the fruit is common in many depictions of the Virgin with the Child in the Terra d’Otranto; similar examples can be found in Carovigno (Virgin of Belvedere) and in the Cathedral of Nardò, where the gift is reciprocal (Maria della Sanità). Greek letters appear along the edges of the fresco, which shows traces of overpainting.
**Epiphany:** Virgin with the Child
**Image:** Painting
**Types of ex-votos:** Lights, inscribed tablets or plaques, painted tablets, goldsmith objects, anthropomorphic figurines, real or depicted prosthetics, miscellaneous objects, photographs, others.
**Reference to publications or printed descriptions:** As evidence of the extensive list of ex-votos once preserved in the Sanctuary, see the anonymous booklet *Cenno storico della prodigiosa apparizione di Maria SS. dell’Abbondanza*, Maglie 1929.
At the beginning of the 20th century, the Sanctuary was in a state of neglect, a sign of waning devotion that had begun in the previous century. The buildings adjacent to the church required urgent restoration by the Municipality, which owned them. It was the archpriest, Don Emilio Negri, who formed a committee with the sole purpose of revitalizing the devotion to the Virgin of Abundance, first promoting the restoration of the Sanctuary’s hospitality structures through the offerings of the faithful. The project was entrusted to engineer Giorgio Fazzi, and the work, begun in 1927, was completed between 1929 and 1930.
The founding legend, preserved in some 18th-century manuscripts and disseminated in print through an anonymous 1929 booklet, is based—albeit with some variations—on a historically documented event: the prolonged drought that struck Cursi and much of Salento for nearly nine months, from July 1640 to April 1641. One April morning in 1641, the farmer Biagio Orlando Natali, after a day’s work, discovered on his way home that he had lost some heifers, which were frantic with thirst. His frantic search proved fruitless. Returning home and still brooding over the incident, he regretted not having searched the area of “Melito,” south of Cursi. Despite his exhaustion, he set out toward that place, and upon arriving, a light seemed to guide him through the hedges, where the “beautiful matron” appeared to him and began speaking, promising protection to the town if he would only return to explain what had happened to the parish priest. The next day, the entire population of Cursi was called together and processed to the site of the apparition. After the prayers concluded and the faithful began returning to their homes, the sky darkened, and over the next three days, it rained so much that the land began to sprout, resulting in an exceptionally abundant harvest. From that moment, the Madonna was invoked under the name of Abundance and chosen by the people as the town’s protector.
The best-known variant is recounted in the *Catasto Onciario* of Cursi (1745), where the miraculous event, backdated to 1606, still features Biagio Orlando Natali as the protagonist, identified as a devotee of the “picciola acona,” and the abundant harvest following the Virgin’s invocation occurs without any rain.
**First privileged altar.** Affiliated with the Archbasilica of Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome, enjoying all the privileges of that basilica. Plenary indulgence and three days of celebration. Twelve annual pilgrimages with indulgence: Plenary indulgence on the Thursday after Easter. Privilege of the votive Mass of the Blessed Virgin Mary on all days except doubles on the 1st and 2nd and privileged octaves.
73020 Cursi LE, Italy
