Chiesa Santa Maria della Rotonda, Albano Laziale

The shrine of Maria Santissima della Rotonda, formerly known as Santa Maria Maggiore, is an important Marian shrine in Lazio, located in the city of Albano Laziale, in the province of Rome, in the Castelli Romani area.

The shrine occupies an ancient round building of Roman construction dating back to the 1st century, which can be traced to Domitian's villa at Castel Gandolfo, and was formerly a nymphaeum or, according to other hypotheses, a temple. The building was converted to Christian use at the time of Constantine the Great or in the period between the 9th and 11th centuries.

Probably run in the first centuries of its existence by religious of the Byzantine rite, it was governed by Augustinian nuns from the 14th century until 1444 and was later assigned to the Girolaminian religious of the basilica of Saints Boniface and Alexius on the Aventine in Rome, who held it until 1663, when the shrine was purchased by the suburbicarian diocese of Albano for the purpose of installing the bishop's seminary there. Between 1708 and 1799, the direction of the seminary and the shrine passed to the Scolopian fathers. Since then, the shrine has been diocesan property and is attached to the parish of the cathedral basilica of San Pancrazio. Today it is listed among the protected architectural monuments of Latium.