Collegiate church Santa Maria Maggiore, Religious monument in Spello, Italy

The Collegiate Church of Santa Maria Maggiore is a Romanesque church in the center of Spello, in Umbria, with a 17th-century facade and a cross-vaulted interior. Seven side altars line the nave, decorated with stucco ornaments, and several chapels open off the main space.

The church rose on the remains of a pagan temple to Juno and Vesta, was later dedicated to the Nativity and then to the Madonna, and passed from the Camaldolese abbey of San Silvestro di Collepino to the diocesan clergy in 1159. Construction was completed in the second half of the 13th century. Around the mid-17th century the 13th-century facade was rebuilt and moved forward, removing the portico and adding the rectangular window.

The Baglioni Chapel, frescoed by Pinturicchio, and the Sacrament Chapel with a painting by him remain visible; most other chapels are now walled up. At the last altar on the left hangs Riccardo Ripanelli's Martyrdom of Saint Apollonia, dated 1595. The church is still Spello's main collegiate church.

The church sits on Piazza Matteotti in the center of Spello and is easy to reach on foot from most parts of the town. Since it is an active place of worship, visitors are expected to dress modestly and behave respectfully inside.

The Deruta majolica floor of the second half of the 16th century lies in the church itself, not in the Baglioni Chapel, whose walls Pinturicchio frescoed. Visitors who keep their eyes on the frescoes miss the polychrome tiles underfoot in the nave.