The name of this sanctuary is a translation error that has lasted centuries. It was built, tradition says, by the Catalan coral fishermen who emigrated to Laigueglia, and the Madonna they brought was for them the Lady of the rock, from the name of the spur she stands on. When Catalan was no longer spoken in the village, that rock became in Italian a feather, and that is what it has been called ever since.
What to see
It is a small building, a single rectangular hall, clinging to the top of the Capo Mele headland, just above the Aurelia road. Legend puts it in the middle of the seventeenth century, when the Catalan community was by then settled in the village. Beside it a shelter was later added for the wayfarers and pilgrims who passed through.
Inside are kept votive offerings connected with the sea: little panels and objects given for a grace received by those who had come back from a storm or a wreck. They are the accounts of a seafaring village's fears, and in a sanctuary on the cape they are exactly where they belong.
Visiting
The sanctuary is on the Capo Mele headland, between Laigueglia and Andora; you get there by road and path, and it opens mainly for the feast and on particular occasions. Half an hour.
Our editors' tip
Go round to the side facing the sea and look for the fresco they call the Madonna of the Great Eyes. It is painted outside, on the outer wall, turned towards the water: it was not for those coming into the church, it was for those passing by boat. A sacred image put where only someone offshore can see it tells you everything about who wanted it there.