Rural oratory (Chiesa SS. Annunziata), under the patronage of Giuseppe Passameliti, was built in 1844, as an ex voto “under the invocation of the SS. Annunziata”. According to family tradition, the patron, a young surgeon and landowner from Messina, was saved from the earthquake (one of the many that shook his city) by running towards the sea. As soon as he arrived at the port, shocked by the continuous shocks, with his house destroyed and his mother dead under the rubble, he boarded the first ship to leave Messina and emigrate elsewhere. As soon as he was aboard, relieved by the shock, he realized that he had the painting of the Annunciation with him and remembered that he had survived because, at the moment of the collapse, he had gone back to save the precious image. He then made a solemn vow that he would establish himself where the ship had stopped, and would build a church in honor of the Madonna. It so happened that it was a Riese brig.
Thus it was that Giuseppe settled in the Piaggia and with the nest egg saved, he actively participated in the frenetic economic and urban growth that the town of Rio Marina was experiencing, and when he had the chance, he built the church.
With the extension of the mining activity ( iron minerals ), the church was surrounded by construction sites and seriously
damaged by mines, until the roof and part of the load-bearing walls collapsed.
The oratory remained for decades in a state of of neglect and very serious deterioration, until a descendant of the pious Messina, Natalia Carletti Giannoni, decided to donate it to a Committee – set up on the initiative of the Mayor, Hon. Bosi, to take care of its rehabilitation. The Church, completely restored and passed into ownership of the Municipality, was inaugurated on May 1st 2009.
360 ° external view of the church SS. Annunziata (Rio Marina)
How to reach Church SS. Annunziata (Rio Marina)
The church of SS. Annunziata is located in the part above the town of Rio Marina, adjacent to the old mine, now the Mining Park of the Elba Island.