The patroness of Alcamo is Maria Santissima dei Miracoli, and the feast in her honour — between 19 and 21 June — is the city's most important. The date is no accident: it points back to 21 June 1547, when two washerwomen by a watercourse, one blind and one deaf, were struck by stones dislodged by the apparition of a woman with a child, and were healed. The next day, nearby, an image of the Virgin and Child was found.
The sanctuary was built at once, to a design by Girolamo Vicchiuzzo and by order of the governor Don Fernando Vega. The image was crowned on 21 June 1784; the painting was repainted in 1890 after a fire and restored in 1963 by Gianbecchina. On the vault is the glorification of the Madonna dei Miracoli and in the apse the apparition and the finding, frescoes painted in 1947 by Alessandro Abate of Catania.
