The 1673 earthquake levelled the church that stood here, probably a 15th-century building. The one you see went up in its place and was consecrated in 1735 by Alessandro Puoti, bishop of Marsico Nuovo; five years later, on 12 June 1740, the Liberian Chapter attached it to the Roman basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore. It has been the parish church of Viggiano since 1859 and for eight months of the year, from the first Sunday of September to the first Sunday of May, it keeps the statue of the Madonna that spends the rest of the time on the Sacro Monte. On 11 December 1965 Paul VI raised it to a pontifical basilica and gave the Madonna del Sacro Monte the title of Patron and Queen of the Lucanian people.
What to see
The facade faces south and is marked out by pilaster strips with Doric capitals carrying a projecting entablature; above it runs an attic register, and higher still an order flanked by volutes, with the clock face set into it. The central doorway has an architrave and a sacred image, with a round-arched window on either side. The bell tower, built against the church, has a square base and one single-light opening on each side of the belfry.
Inside, cruciform piers and round arches divide the space into three aisles; the ceiling is coffered, with gilding and stucco, and the decorated vault dates from 1854. Overhead you can pick out an Annunciation and an Assumption; in the presbytery and the two chapels flanking it are the canvas of the Madonna del Sacro Monte with Saints Gennaro and Francesco di Paola, painted by Giansenio Ferrari in 1714, an Eternal Father signed by Francesco Fracanzano, and an Immaculate Conception by Filiberto Guma da Pignola, dated 1656. There are also two reliefs by Jacopo Della Pila, a Madonna and Child and a Saint John the Evangelist, and a 15th-century wooden crucifix.
Visiting
The church stands on Piazza Regina delle Genti Lucane, opposite the town hall: the square carries a series of bronze reliefs with the civic coats of arms of the 131 municipalities of Basilicata. The presbytery is raised by a few steps and closed by a flat back wall; the altar facing the congregation and the ambo were added in the restoration of 2003. Come between September and May and the statue of the Madonna is here, which is why the church is never empty.
Our editors' tip
As soon as you are out, turn into the lanes of the old town and look up: small harps are carved on the doorways of some houses and on the keystones of the arches, dated between 1858 and 1882 and often accompanied by other stringed instruments. The stone came from the bank of the Alli torrent.