While the church itself is beautiful and Baroque, with a gorgeous nave featuring the last intact carved wooden ceiling in Livorno, the real attraction is in the surrounding rooms and hallways. On the walls hangs Italy’s largest collection of ex-votos (votive offerings, short for the Latin ex voto suscepto: “from the vow made”) giving thanks to the Madonna for saving her devotees from disaster.
The collection starts in the early 1800s, mostly with paintings, and as the exhibition continues, later offerings include photographs, clothing, reproductions, and heirlooms. Many depict near-death incidents at sea, fires, or war, but the gallery also contains plenty of images of avoided fatalities in daily life, from the common (carriage and car accidents) to the unique (a pot falling from a windowsill onto a person’s head). Some are of great artistic value, including paintings by Giovanni Fattori and Renato Natali, though most are amateur works of folk art.
