On 5 February 1783 the earth shook, and the people of Vallelonga came out of their houses in fright and set off in procession towards the sanctuary of the Madonna di Monserrato, up the mountain. As they climbed, they looked back at their own village: and they saw the second shock, stronger than the first, bring the whole of it down. Had they not been at the procession they would have been under their own houses. The village was rebuilt high up, next to the sanctuary, and of the old settlement at the bottom of the valley nothing is left but the name, which was deliberately kept to remember what happened.
The sanctuary is now a minor basilica: Paul VI gave it the title in 1971, and inside there is an organ of more than four thousand pipes, one of the largest in Calabria. From the war memorial, on clear summer evenings, you can see the outline of Stromboli at work. From the nineteen fifties many people of Vallelonga left for Canada, and the community they made over there has grown larger than the village itself: at Loretto, in Ontario, a club holds the feast of Monserrato every year.
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📅 Every year, on the second Sunday of July
On the second Sunday of July Vallelonga, a municipality of 682 inhabitants in the province of Vibo Valentia, celebrates its patroness the Madonna di Monserrato.
Straight-line distances from the town centre. Tap a point to open its page.
The closest destinations covered by our editors, with straight-line distance.
Outside Vallelonga, but an easy day trip away.
