The Basilica of Santa Maria Madre della Consolazione, better known as the Basilica or Sanctuary of the Eremo, stands in the hillside district of the same name in Reggio Calabria and is one of Calabria's foremost Marian shrines.
What to see
Where the sanctuary now stands there was originally only a small votive shrine, until in 1532 Archbishop Geronimo Centelles called twelve Capuchin friars to found a convent there from which to spread the new Franciscan rule; irreparably damaged by the earthquake of 1908, the complex was rebuilt first in provisional form and then, to a design by the architect Anna Sbarracani Anastasi, as the present temple in modern architecture, inaugurated on 30 July 1965. On 28 November 1971 the sanctuary was raised to the dignity of minor basilica.
Inside is kept the venerated painting of the Madonna della Consolazione, a work by the local painter Niccolò Andrea Caprioli made in 1547, together with bronze panels by the sculptor Alessandro Monteleone and a Way of the Cross by Pasquale Panetta. The sanctuary is home for almost the whole year to the great processional float of the Madonna, which from the second week of September until the last Sunday of November is instead kept in the city's cathedral basilica.
Visiting
The basilica is open for worship and visits according to service times, worth checking before going.
Our editors' tip
Climb up here even just for the view: from the Eremo square, the highest point in the city, the eye sweeps over the Strait of Messina, and it's easy to understand why this has for centuries been the sanctuary to which the people of Reggio entrust their deepest devotions.
