The sanctuary of Nostra Signora della Brughiera stands at Bulliana, a couple of kilometres from Trivero, at over 800 metres among chestnut woods and pastures. Tradition has it born where the Virgin appeared to a mute shepherd girl and gave her back her speech; today it is open all year and is one of the five sanctuaries in the Biella area licensed for weddings.
What to see
There are two churches. The larger is the heart of the sanctuary and holds, besides its ex voto, a Nativity by Gian Giacomo Barbelli of Crema at the centre of the altar, a central nave and presbytery painted in the eighteenth century by Pietro Lace, and a wooden pulpit of Valsesia origin, now kept in the sacristy. The second is smaller and older: it was built in the sixteenth century on the remains of a fourteenth-century church beside which the followers of fra' Dolcino had camped. The hermit's house and the pilgrims' lodgings also date from the eighteenth century.
Visiting
It is worth walking up the mule track that leads to the village of Bulliana: a Way of the Cross of fourteen stations in as many chapels marks it out, decorated in the nineteenth century by Giovanni Avondo of Balmuccia and retouched in 1879 by the Valsessera painter Ciancia. The sanctuary belongs to the group of minor Biellese sanctuaries that lie on the CoEUR and Cammino di San Carlo routes, together with Banchette at Bioglio, the Mazzucco at Camandona and the Brugarola at Ailoche.
Our editors' tip
Inside the larger church, look for the big painting of the quarrel. The sanctuary sits exactly on the boundary between Trivero and Mosso, and the two parishes disputed its ownership: on 25 March 1643 their two processions met here and words gave way to stones and arquebuses. The inscription on the painting records the outcome with a candour that is worth the trip: many shots were fired, and no one was hurt, by a miracle of the Virgin Mary.