santuario, diocesano, Santuario Diocesano di San Donato

The Santuario Diocesano di San Donato, protector of Ripacandida, rises from a site with deeper roots: a religious building already listed in a papal bull of 1152, addressed to the bishop of Rapolla. The current church likely dates from the early 1500s. Its walls and ceiling are covered with fine paintings by a pupil of Giotto, earning it the epithet ‘the little Assisi of Basilicata’. In 2004, this connection was formalised through a twinning with the Pontifical Basilica of San Francesco in Assisi, which entrusted a relic of the saint to the Franciscan Missionary Sisters who care for the sanctuary. Declared a national monument in 2010, it was recognised as a Diocesan Sanctuary in 2017, and reaffirmed as such in February 2025. The principal feast falls on 5-7 August. A place where local devotion and a wider artistic heritage meet, quietly.

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