The Saint Romedio sanctuary is the most interesting example of medieval Christian art in the Trentino region. The famous pilgrimage place is built on a 70-metre high calcareous rock.This architectonic building is surrounded by a wonderful natural landscape and it is composed of several churches and chapels directly on the rock. The whole structure is connected by a steep stairway with 131 steps.
The oldest chapel of the building dates back to the 11th century and over the centuries other three little churches and other two chapels have been built, and also seven Passion’s aedicules.
This suggestive and spiritual location is dedicated to the hermit Romedio from Thaur. When the hermit died, his believers dug his tomb in the rock and this cult is still alive nowadays.
On 15th January we celebrate the Saint Romedio’s day with a mass in the sanctuary and eating the typical dish of the pilgrim. Every year 200.000 pilgrims come to visit the sanctuary and two Franciscan monks take care of it.
The walk in the rocks from Sanzeno to the sanctuary is a must-see. During summer (approx. from the end of July to the middle of September) a shuttle service is offered from the parking al Mulino to the parking at the sanctuary S. Romedio.
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.