Acquasanta and the Water Cult

“… This meadow called Acqua Santa by way of a little church standing at the end of it with a Virgin Mary venerated under the same name owing to a spring of perfect perpetual water flowing out to the left of such little church”. This is how in 1892 Giovanni Capellini describes the place where the Virgin Mary of the Acquasanta sanctuary once stood, at that time completely covered by olives with San Vito canal running through it. The spring had lent its name to this site, Christianized by dedicating it to the Virgin Mary, but a nymphaeum had probably been standing there already in Roman times, a pagan sanctuary dedicated to nymphs and therefore to the sacredness of water as a primitive element, the cult of which was to be transformed afterwards into the sanctuary dedicated to St. Mary.
What was left of the nymphaeum was then probably incorporated in the public wash houses built at the beginning of the XX century and completely demolished in the 70’s, also burying the spring.
The first information about the church dates back to 1584, even though we can imagine that this place of worship was probably very much older for the reasons mentioned above. In any case in 1584 the apostolic legate monsignor Peruzzi visited the sanctuary and described the numerous old waxen votives inside, confirming the deep devotion.
A miracle happened in 1702 to confirm the sacredness of the site and the curative properties of the spring waters: this had in fact been completely dried out due to a lengthy draught, but after a woman from Marola prayed to the Virgin Mary, the waters started to gush out once more, renewing their beneficial effects.
The spring of fresh water gushed out in open sea not very far from San Vito shoreline, in the Cadimare area, a hypogenic phenomenon that attracted the scientific interest of many experts. The propulsive force of this spring made the water gush right out of sea. Unfortunately lost during the course of the works on the Naval Arsenal, the spring and its curious jet of water had helped towards making this part of the Gulf well known, a place where the waters with their therapeutic vaguely magic properties were an authentic landmark.