The Santuario della Misericordia was constructed on a votive shrine in the 15^th century. The changes were so controversial that Guarniero Marefoschi, a Macerata patrician who had financed the extension, called for the Neapolitan Luigi Vanvitelli, who at the time was working on another project in Lazaretto, Ancona, to take on the ambitious reconstruction of the sanctuary. Vanvitelli’s work was made even more interesting in the light of Marefoschi’s purchase of a room in the Bishop’s Palace that allowed the architect from Naples to enlarge the presbytery with the creation of an elliptical cupola with a lantern. The interior was designed by Vanvitelli with a profusion of fine marble, with a lunette barrel vaulted ceiling decorated with the Coronation of the Virgin by Francesco Mancini, who also painted the four canvasses on the walls in the nave. Sebastiano Conca produced the Nativity of the Virgin and the Immaculata, whilst the Madonna of Mercy on the altar is probably the work of Giovanni Spagna. Vanvitelli’s contribution ended in 1741 without being able to produce the new façade. Other work followed during the 19^th century involving first the architect Giovanni Montini and then the architect Giuseppe Rossi, until arriving at the more recent interventions which brought the demolition of the Vanvitelli sacristy built in 1736. More recent frescoes can be seen inside this small temple, along the walkway, by the artist Biagio Biagetti from Recanati.