Draft:Santa Maria intus vineas

The church of Santa Maria intus vineas or church of Madonna di sotto is a religious building located in Vigevano, in province of Pavia and diocese of Vigevano.

Description and history
It is a very ancient church, prior to 1202, the year in which it was included among the dependencies of the Cistercian monastery of San Maiolo of Pavia. It was patronized by the Ardizzi family, one of the most illustrious fifteenth-century Vigevano families. In 1424 they took care of the restoration and reconstruction of the building, dedicating it to Santa Maria intus vineas.

The appearance of the building suggests an ancient temple with the four pillars of the small portico supporting the triangular tympanum. The apse has a semicircular plan, while the ceiling, currently very deteriorated, is coffered.

The church has great historical value; despite this, it has been abandoned for some time and the frescoes are now illegible. However, until a few decades ago, in the aedicule to the left of the altar, you could admire traces of a fifteenth-century Madonna and Child. Some frescoes were probably by the hand of the best artists of the ducal court such as Zanetto Bugatto, Bonifacio Bembo and Leonardo Ponzoni.

Originally, it was one of the many cemetery chapels in Vigevano that arose following the spread of Christianity in the area: others, now disappeared, were San Pietro intus vineas, San Vitale intus vineas and San Vincenzo in Prato. These chapels were dedicated to the Virgin, the Apostles and the Martyrs and indicated with the name of the vineyard, vegetable garden, meadow or field of a given Christian owner. Many of these were destroyed or confiscated during the persecutions; among others, there are also San Pietro in Rometta, San Martino and, with good probability, the Church of Misericordia.