The sanctuary stands on top of the Monserrato hill, the one that closes Borgo San Dalmazzo on the upland side. Its origins go back to the first half of the seventeenth century and are tied to the cult of the dark-skinned Madonna venerated at Montserrat in Spain and at Oropa: after the severe plague that struck northern Italy between 1628 and 1630, the townspeople decided to raise a sanctuary to the Virgin on a spot that had been a pilgrimage destination since the Middle Ages and that a large cross had long marked. The first firm mention is from 1651 and comes in the account book of the Confraternity of Santa Croce of Roccavione, which used to come up here in procession.
What to see
The original building was as plain as could be: a single nave, lodging for a hermit and a sacristy. On the high altar stood a statue of the Madonna and Child, now kept in the museum of the parish of San Dalmazzo. What you see today is the result of two centuries of additions: the bell tower dates from 1831, the portico with the chaplain's lodging from 1836, and the Stations of the Cross pillars, votive shrines with the scenes of the Passion carved in relief, from 1902. In between came a violent interlude: in 1794 the inhabitants made a vow to the Madonna, promising a procession every 25 April if they were spared the French occupation; in 1799 revolutionary troops sacked and wrecked the chapel, which was restored and reconsecrated in 1801. From the nineteenth century onwards, repairs and additions gave it its present shape.
Visiting
A wide natural balcony opens in front of the church: on clear days you take in the whole town and the plain towards Cuneo. The hill, for that matter, is worth the climb even without the sanctuary. In 1153 a fortress was built here to control the surrounding country, then an obligatory passage for goods, people and armies, and it was at Monserrato that Frederick Barbarossa and Raymond Berengar met. Demolished and rebuilt several times, the fortress collapsed for good shortly after the French Revolution: a watchtower survives, and a building the locals call the chiesaccia. The part of the hill where it stood is now a park named after the engineer Sebastiano Grandis. In May the sanctuary opens every day; in the following months on Sunday afternoons.
Our editors' tip
The titular feast falls on 27 April, but the one that really counts is the Nativity of Mary, in September. On the eve, local partisans carry the statue of the Virgin on their shoulders from the sanctuary down to the parish church at the foot of the hill: they have done it since 1945 and have never stopped. That is the moment when Monserrato stops being a viewpoint and goes back to being what it has always been for the town.