The sanctuary of Maria Santissima dell'Alto, to the people of Alcamo the Maronna di l'avutu, stands on the summit of Monte Bonifato above Alcamo. A sixteenth-century legend tells that an old icon of the Madonna was found among the castle walls, almost painted on the ground and buried; a devout man prayed for it to rise a little so he could build an altar, and the next day the image was at the height he wished. The first record of a church on the Bonifato, founded by three Carmelite friars, is a deed by the notary Balduccio of 1558; pilgrims helped the friars rebuild it where the image was found.
What to see
The first church was about 17 metres long and 7 wide, with the entrance to the east and the bell tower above it. By 1583 it was already neglected; in 1646 the bishop of Mazara approved the statute of the congregation of Santa Maria dell'Alto, made up of nobles, priests and commoners who undertook to restore it. The present building, last restored in 1930, has a single nave and three altars: the high altar, that of Saint Joseph and that of the Crucifix.
On the high altar is the wooden statue of the Madonna dell'Alto by Luigi Santifaller, from 1950; in the sacristy is another by Giuseppe Ospedale. There is also a Madonna painted on zinc sheet by Liborio Mirabile, restored in 1930 and retouched in 1982. The original painting and the wooden statue of 1644 have been lost.
Visiting
The feast is prepared between August and September: on the last Sunday of August the faithful climb on foot in pilgrimage from the church of the Sacro Cuore, a Marian week follows, and on 8 September, the Nativity of Mary, the statue is carried in procession. Times and openings should be checked.
Our editors' tip
Along the pilgrims' sacred way, in 1703, fourteen Stations of the Cross shrines were placed; the congregation has remade them in wood. In the sixteenth century, the poet Sebastiano Bagolino relates, girls climbed up here dressed as the Madonna, with a black veil, to pray for rain.
