Romituzzo Sanctuary

The sanctuary takes its name from the place where, in ancient times, three hermit women lived (from “Romite” to the church’s name “Romituzzo”) and it was location of a sacred shrine with a fourteenth century’s image representing the Madonna della Neve, painted by an unknown artist, which many miracles are attrubuted to throughout the years.
It’s the only church famous in Italy for the presence of the “ex-voto”, a devotional practice of two different kinds, painted bars and objects in papier mache, collocated in overlapping lines along the church’s walls, without a logic order.
The objectual ex voto are hands, legs and full figures representing diseases, help requests or rewards while the bars are the narration of an event developped realistically.
The church, with just one aisle and with roof trusses, a main altar and two side ones, has become sanctuary during the sixteenth century while in 1500 it has been enriched with a bell tower and a porch.
Around 1550 the heyday of the oratory was reached thanks to the granting pardons and the rising of pilgrimages, testified by the presence of more than five hundreds pieces of paper hanging the walls.

Via Burresi, 17