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All Italy Ferrara di Monte Baldo Santuario Madonna della Corona
AO Edited

Santuario Madonna della Corona

This centuries-old Italian chapel hangs midway down a sheer cliffside.

Ferrara di Monte Baldo, Italy

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Santuario Madonna della Corona   Colin Gregory / CC BY 2.0
A site of silence   Svenjk / Atlas Obscura User
Santuario Madonna della Corona   Bruno Cordioli / CC BY 2.0
Santuario Madonna della Corona   Frisia Orientalis / CC BY-SA 3.0
Church interior   marco_ask / CC BY-SA 2.0
A beautifull site   Svenjk / Atlas Obscura User
  karenallen2175 / Atlas Obscura User
August 2022   cybperry / Atlas Obscura User
Photo by Paolo Groppo - verona.com   Traveller80 / Atlas Obscura User
Photo by Paolo Groppo - verona.com   Traveller80 / Atlas Obscura User
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Built over 2,000 feet above sea level into a vertical cliff face on Italy's Mount Baldo in front of Valdadige, The Santuario Madonna della Corona (Sanctuary of the Lady of the Crown) looks as though it is nearly suspended in mid-air. 

The church does not actually hang on the sheer face but instead sits on a thin rock shelf that can only be reached by a thin path from below and a street from above. Originally the secluded shelf was home to a hermitage where holy men could come for silent reflection, completely removed from the rest of the world. The actual church was built in 1530 and the site became a chapel for anyone wanting to pay pilgrimage and contemplate the nature of God in peace. The main chapel saw a number of changes over the ensuing centuries growing larger and at one point having a larger church built over the existing one. 

Thanks to its relative inaccessibility the church was never totally destroyed or desecrated and managed to survive into the 20th century, crumbling a bit but intact. In the 1970s an Italian architect tore down much of the aging structure and built it back up, taking care to retain as many important artistic flourishes as possible.

Today the once treacherous mountain path to the chapel has been modernized and the remarkable church is still a popular pilgrimage site for visitors coming to see the Scala Santa, a replica of the stairs to Pilate's palace that Jesus ascended before he was condemned to be crucified. Oh and also to see a church cling to a cliff like it is in hiding.

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Churches Cliffs Architectural Oddities Architecture Sacred Spaces

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Coming from the path below is very long and hard, it take about 1 hour

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  • hrnick
  • ljbrown
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  • EricGrundhauser
  • karenallen2175
  • Svenjk
  • cybperry
  • Michelle Cassidy

Published

March 13, 2015

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  • https://verona.com/it/monte-baldo/santuario-della-madonna-della-corona/
  • http://www.tourism.verona.it/en/enjoy/history-heritage/churches-holy-places/sanctuary-of-madonna-della-corona
  • http://www.madonnadellacorona.it/tour-virtuale/
Santuario Madonna della Corona
2 Località Gabbiola
Ferrara di Monte Baldo
Ferrara di Monte Baldo
Italy
45.64949, 10.856629
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