Oratorio della Madonnina, Lucca, Italy.
The oratory of the Madonnina is a church in Lucca.
It was built in the seventeenth century in memory of the destroyed basilica of San Pier Maggiore (Lucca). On the outside there are three bas-reliefs which illustrate the stories of the three saints most venerated in Lucca, Paolino, Martino and Pietro. Inside, rebuilt in the eighteenth century, on the main altar there is a fragment of a larger fresco composition depicting the Madonna and Child between Saints Avertano and Romeo, from the mid-fifteenth century, attributable to Borghese di Pietro from ancient church of San Pietro. The tombstone depicting the two pilgrim saints, from the end of the fifteenth century, referred to Matteo Civitali, has the same provenance, and perhaps also the fifteenth-century bas-relief with the Trinity and Saints Peter and Paul.
When the basilica of San Pier Maggiore was destroyed in 1513 to make way for the new city walls, only a pylon with an effigy of the Madonna depicted on it remained standing of the old church. When a worker attempted to demolish the pylon, a large flame hit him, stunning him. Having reported the situation to Bishop Sisto Gara Franciotti della Rovere, he decided to leave the pylon intact, building what is now the oratory of the Madonnina around it.