Work began in 1187 and ended around 1198, to a design by two architects from Muro Lucano, Luigi and Ruggero Sarolo, paid for in part by the local people and approved by Leopardus, bishop of Minervino. The Santuario della Gloriosa, which almost everyone in Montemilone calls the sanctuary of the Madonna del Bosco, is among the earliest built in Basilicata: the Basilian monks wanted it, and since they chose riverbanks or high ground for their foundations, they raised it above the old grotto of the oratory of Casale di San Lorenzo, at some 400 metres, in what is known as the Valle dei Greci.
What to see
The front follows the line of the three naves, higher in the middle and lower at the sides. It stays bare apart from the small bell tower, the octagonal rose window and the stone doorway under a pointed arch cut into the wall. The closed, heavy forms are Romanesque, but the ground plan is the classic eastern one, and Byzantine habits show through the Romanesque vocabulary.
Inside, six square pillars split the hall into three naves, the central one wider, and carry four round arches; the capitals are no more than projecting slabs with bevelled edges. The presbytery is raised and once held an altar made of a large stone table resting on a quadrangular block. Three semicircular apses close the far end. Of the paintings that once covered the walls entirely nothing survives: a restoration in 1955 wiped them out.
Visiting
The sanctuary lies two kilometres from the village and is reached by road, through oak woods: as you come up it stands above you, looking down over the valley. Along the left side runs the hermitage, once also a guesthouse: founded by the monks of Saint Basil, it passed in 1361 to the Friars Minor, and between 1728 and 1820 the hermits of Santa Maria della Rigliosa are documented here, probably local monks living by Byzantine custom. Both church and hermitage have needed recent structural work.
Our editors' tip
If you have come for the wooden statue of the Madonna del Bosco, you will only find it here during the patronal feast: for the rest of the year it is kept in the church of Santo Stefano down in the village and carried up for the days of the festival. Plan accordingly, and in any case stop on the forecourt before going in - that is where you understand why the Basilians picked this particular spot.