An oasis surrounded by greenery, among ancient and imposing elms. A place of silence and meditation for many, of prayer. There, where nine centuries ago a group of Crusaders returning from the Holy Land decided to secure a wooden statue found in the east in a thicket of vegetation. It depicted a Madonna with Child and was of clear Byzantine origin and manufacture..
Some time later, a mute shepherd-girl who was taking care of the sheep of the area, noticing something weird in the bushes, found the statue and began to speak. The discovery aroused great interest and soon a church was built on that hill, right in front of the village of Buonalbergo, near which a hermitage was also built.
The sacred building with one-nave is flanked by a bell tower in two levels with four single-lancet windows. The church houses the ancient wooden statue, which on the occasion of the annual feast, September 12, is covered with a mantle embroidered with gold items and votive offerings, which leaves only the faces of the Virgin and Child uncovered. On that occasion, the whole village went on pilgrimage to the Sanctuary of the Madonna della Macchia, whose name evokes the particular circumstances of the discovery of the miraculous statue.
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