Shrine of the Virgin of the Rosary of Pompei

The Pontifical Shrine of the Blessed Virgin of the Rosary stands in the Campanian town of Pompei. It is a Catholic cathedral and pontifical minor basilica built on a Latin cross plan. The shrine was commissioned by Bartolo Longo and his wife Mariana di Fusco. The first church was completed in 1891 after Longo restored an earlier building and promoted devotion to Our Lady of the Rosary. Pilgrims soon arrived in large numbers after a painting of the Virgin was placed in the church. The painting of Our Lady of the Rosary hangs above the high altar in a gilt bronze frame. It shows the Virgin Mary and Child Jesus giving rosaries to Saint Dominic and Saint Catherine of Siena. The image was bought in Naples for eight carlini and arrived in Pompei in 1875. After early restorations it was crowned by Pope Paul VI in 1965. Bartolo Longo wrote the Novena of Petition in 1879 while recovering from typhoid fever. The present building covers two thousand square metres and can hold six thousand people. Its eighty-metre bell tower was finished in 1925. The façade, completed in 1901, features a Carrara marble statue of the Virgin weighing eighteen thousand kilograms. Inside are three aisles with six side altars. The shrine also holds the tombs of Bartolo Longo, his wife and the prelate Antonio Anastasio Rossi.