santuario, diocesano, Santuario Diocesano Madonna degli Angeli

In the district of Pantano, within the parish of Santa Maria Maggiore at Pignola, stands a temple raised by the piety of the faithful and dedicated to the Madonna degli Angeli. The sanctuary’s origins are thought to lie with Italo-Greek monks around the ninth century, who established a chapel here and venerated a stone image of the Virgin, said to have been found on the spot. That same image now occupies a niche above the portal. The cult likely grew with the arrival of the Benedictines after the year 1000; their abbey stood beside the church by the fourteenth century. The present building, however, dates from a reconstruction in 1789, as an inscription on the portal records. Twice a year, a ritual procession carries the statue of the Madonna down from the sanctuary to the mother church in May, and back again in September, accompanied by a considerable crowd of pilgrims. The site was formally designated a diocesan sanctuary in 1990.

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