Shrine of Madonna of the Crown
Are you celebrating your holiday on Lake Garda and do you want to get away? Away from all that hustle and bustle? Would you like to relax completely and enjoy the silence? Then we recommend a visit to a sanctuary, a place of pilgrimage, an ideal place for rest and reflection.
Sanctuary Madonna della Corona
The Sanctuary Madonna della Corona in Spiazzi is the best known and most visited pilgrimage site near Lake Garda. The mountain range forms a crown, as it were, around this religious site dedicated to Mary, hence the name Madonna della Corona.
Almost floating between heaven and earth, at an altitude of 774 meters, this place lies hidden amidst the rocks on Mount Baldo in Italy. This shrine can only be reached via a narrow path. From this special location you have a beautiful view of the valley through which the Adige flows. According to ancient writings, a thousand hermits have already lived here around the year.
in 1982 this shrine received the honorary title "Basilica Minore" from Pope John Paul II.
The actual church was built in 1530 and the site became a chapel for anyone who wanted to make a pilgrimage and think about the nature of God in peace. The main chapel saw a number of changes growing in size over the centuries that followed, and at one point a larger church was built over the existing one.
Due to its relative inaccessibility, the church was never completely destroyed or desecrated and managed to survive into the 20th century, a little crumbling but intact. In the 1970s, an Italian architect demolished and rebuilt much of the obsolete structure, ensuring that as many important artistic delights as possible were preserved.
Today, the once treacherous mountain path to the chapel has been modernized and the remarkable church is still a popular pilgrimage site for visitors who come to see the Scala Santa, a replica of the stairs to Pilate's palace that Jesus ascended before he was condemned to be crucified .