On 22 March 1888, at Cesa tra Santi, two shepherd girls called Serafina and Bibiana said they had seen the Virgin. Other apparitions followed, and the town set about collecting the money to build a sanctuary.
The first stone was laid on 28 September 1890, but the basilica was finished only in 1975: it is neo-Gothic, and seen from above it is made of seven chapels, the seven sorrows of the Virgin, around a dome 54 metres high. From the sanctuary to the place of the apparitions runs the Via Matris, seven hundred and fifty metres long. The thirteenth-century parish church of San Martino holds paintings by Amedeo Trivisonno. There are 1,662 residents.
santuario dell'Addolorata
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Next up: Saint Martin of Tours, patron of the town of the apparitions of the Sorrowful Mother, Wednesday 11 November
Nearest airport: Napoli Capodichino, 76 km away
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📅 Every year, on 11 November
Castelpetroso celebrates Saint Martin of Tours on 11 November; his 13th-century parish church holds a mosaic of the saint, but the town is best known for the Sanctuary of the Sorrowful Mother, where tradition holds the Virgin appeared in 1888.
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 Castelpetroso, but an easy day trip away.
