Madonna della Corona

The Sanctuary of Madonna della Corona (Our Lady of the Crown) is halfway on the vertical rock face of Mount Baldo, almost perching on the rocks (700 m a.s.l.). Some hermits used to live in this place in the ancient times (1139) and the hermitage was linked to the monastery of Saint Zeno, in Verona. The Hermitage was dedicated to Our Lady with the title of God’s Mother, and towards 1437 passed under the management of the Order of the Knights of Malta. A small church was built from 1480 to 1522.

According to the tradition in 1522 an Image of Our Lady, which had disappeared in Rhodes during the Turkish conquest, appeared on these mountains. And from the 24th of June of that year on, people started to venerate the statue of Our Lady of Sorrows, which had been carved out and given to the hermits by Ludovico from Castelbarco. The name of the Sanctuary was inspired by the mountains surrounding it like a “crown”.

It was built in 1625 and was afterwards restored and modified many times, because of its logistic position. The latest restoration and an enlargement of the building were made in 1975. The new Church was dedicated in 1978, and became Minor Basilica in 1982.

The Sanctuary was all carved out in the rocks and two of its walls, the left one and the apse, are actually made of rocks. Inside 160 small paintings, given as offering votes, are kept, together with the famous fresco of God’s Mother (14th century). The statue of Our Lady worshipped in this church is a group 70 cm high, in painted stone: Our Lady of Sorrows holds up a dead Jesus, just deposed from the Cross.