santuario, diocesano, Santissimo Salvatore

High in the Picentini Mountains, the Santuario del Santissimo Salvatore commands its summit at nearly a thousand metres, isolated from the surrounding ridges and gazing down over the valley below. This is a place where formal religion and folk tradition sit comfortably together: pilgrims come not only to worship but to drink from the Pozzo del Miracolo or to pull the rope of the great bell.

The church itself began modestly, a small structure built on this mountain by the local community in the sixteenth century. By the mid-1700s, priests were already making the ascent each August for the Feast of the Transfiguration, a tradition that continues today. The sanctuary remains the spiritual heart of Montella and the wider Picentini region, its annual pilgrimage on the 6th of August drawing people from neighbouring dioceses. It is, as one local writer put it, the pride of the entire town.

Description via source. Coordinates and heritage data from the Atika atlas.