Publisher's Synopsis
The church of Santa Maria del Lago certainly existed in the twelfth century as attested by the inscription of the date (1159) on the ambo. From the Chronicon Casauriense we know that around 1050 Moscufo became a fief of the Benedictine monastery of San Clemente in Casauria and the construction of the church can be traced back to that time. The fact that the building does not have a bell tower reinforces this hypothesis since until the eleventh century the function of the bell tower of gathering the faithful was carried out by simple hand bells. Over the centuries the church has undergone restoration and transformation work. One of the most important and incisive interventions is the restoration carried out in the Baroque age, precisely in 1733, under Abbot Battista Mazzacara. In 1960, important restorations were carried out by the Superintendence in order to restore the original state. The cemetery behind was completely isolated from the church on which he had leaned until then. Consolidation works were carried out of the structure and roof as well as the foundations. The injuries were healed especially in the apse area and the additions of buildings that over the centuries had been built close to the apse and the left wall of the church were eliminated. The original facade before the eighteenth-century one was restored through a complex and global intervention. The interior of the church is rich in works of great importance such as the ambo, capitals and frescoes.
