Surrounded by the Tyrrhenian Sea, the Santuario di Santa Maria dell’Isola is in the town of Tropea in the Province of Vibo Valentia. While its history is uncertain, the area is known to have come under the auspices of Basilian monks of the Eastern rite some time during the early Middle Ages. In the 11th century, the island’s religious reigns were passed to the Benedictines under guidance of the Normans. Tropea and the surrounding communities were gradually Latinized, and interestingly, the Abbey of Montecassino has held dominion over the island sanctuary for over 1,000 years.
Little of the original structure remains due to the devastating earthquakes of 1783 and 1905. Today, Santa Maria dell’Isola has become one of Calabria’s most internationally recognized symbols.
References:The Pilgrimage Church of Wies (Wieskirche) is an oval rococo church, designed in the late 1740s by Dominikus Zimmermann. It is located in the foothills of the Alps in the municipality of Steingaden.
The sanctuary of Wies is a pilgrimage church extraordinarily well-preserved in the beautiful setting of an Alpine valley, and is a perfect masterpiece of Rococo art and creative genius, as well as an exceptional testimony to a civilization that has disappeared.
The hamlet of Wies, in 1738, is said to have been the setting of a miracle in which tears were seen on a simple wooden figure of Christ mounted on a column that was no longer venerated by the Premonstratensian monks of the Abbey. A wooden chapel constructed in the fields housed the miraculous statue for some time. However, pilgrims from Germany, Austria, Bohemia, and even Italy became so numerous that the Abbot of the Premonstratensians of Steingaden decided to construct a splendid sanctuary.