santuario, diocesano, Santuario della Madonna della Brughiera

The Santuario della Madonna della Brughiera is not one church but two: the Chiesa Antica and the Chiesa Grande, built without the benefit of a carriage road in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The impulse for their construction was a reported miracle: a mute and deaf shepherdess was said to have been granted speech and hearing through the Madonna’s intercession. This made the site a destination for pilgrims from the surrounding parishes, and it remains so.

The later church was frescoed by Pietro Lace of Andorno, and in the nineteenth century a Via Crucis was built to link the sanctuary with the parish church of Bulliana. Its chapels were painted by Avondo of Varallo, with further work by Antonio Ciancia. The sanctuary complex now includes a youth hostel, hermitage, hotel, restaurant, and a hall seating two hundred. After a period of quiet in the early twentieth century, it was reconsecrated by the Bishop of Biella in 1997.

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