This is the first Italian sanctuary dedicated to the Madonna of Fátima, and the date when it became so says a good deal: May 1943, in the middle of the war. At the inauguration, in a hamlet of a few houses at the foot of the Sacra di San Michele, more than ten thousand pilgrims turned up.
What to see
The church is far older than its dedication: it was built at the beginning of the eighteenth century, when the hamlet abandoned the old Romanesque church, and was then dedicated to saint Anne. It was enlarged in the mid nineteenth century, and in the nineteen-thirties a Turin architect added the sacristy and the bell tower you still see.
The apparitions of Fátima were of 1917 and the Church had authorised the cult barely more than ten years before this dedication: it was therefore a brand-new devotion. The wooden statue that stands on a stone column to the left of the altar was carved for the purpose by the masters of Ortisei, in the Val Gardena, and a few years later the bishop crowned it.
Visiting
The sanctuary is in the hamlet of San Pietro, on the road climbing towards the Sacra; free entry, hours tied to services and larger crowds on the days of Marian celebrations. Half an hour.
Our editors' tip
Look at the crown on the statue's head: it was paid for by the faithful, who brought their own gold. Those were the years right after the war and there was very little gold in anyone's house. The crowns in sanctuaries all look alike, but behind each is a list of rings and chains from people who had very little.