The sanctuary stands at 1380 metres, in the valley of the same name now part of Busca, and is the most important in the diocese of Saluzzo. It grows out of one precise event: between 5 August and 20 September 1834, on the upland called Pian del Chiotto, four shepherd girls said they had seen the Madonna. They were Maria Pittavino, Maria Margherita Pittavino and Maria Chiotti, aged twelve, and Maria Boschero, aged ten.
What to see
In their account the figure was a young woman of solemn appearance, in a long robe gathered at the waist and with a long blue veil on her head. The dedication to the Madonna of Mercy comes from a recognition: that same year, at the market of nearby Venasca, a small picture of the Madonna of Mercy of Savona was on sale, and the girls recognised in it the woman they had seen.
Visiting
You get there by climbing into the valley, and the altitude tells: this is a mountain sanctuary, not a village church, and the time on the road has to be reckoned with. Anyone going in winter should check the state of the climb before setting out.
Our editors' tip
It is worth knowing where this place sits in the history of Marian apparitions: chronologically the Valmala apparitions are considered the first to have occurred in Europe in the nineteenth century, before the better-known ones of La Salette and Lourdes. That is why a sanctuary in a side valley of the Cuneo country carries a weight its size would not suggest.