santuario, mariano, diocesano, Santa Maria Fonte delle Grazie

The Santuario di Santa Maria Fonte delle Grazie stands twelve kilometres from Tricarico, deep in the communal woodland of Fonti-Tre Cancelli. It is a Norman-era church, property of the cathedral chapter of Tricarico, and its religious heart is a sixteenth-century fresco set above the main altar, within a niche that holds a canvas of the Holy Trinity. Here the Virgin sits, supporting the Child who blesses with his right hand and holds the world, crowned with a cross, in his left. A canopy rises behind them; two angels place a crown on Mary’s head.

The sanctuary was mentioned by Pope John Paul II during his 1991 pastoral visit to Basilicata, when he described the region as land blessed by Mary, and counted this place among those oases of Marian piety where pilgrims find peace. In July 2024, the Archbishop of Matera-Irsina and Bishop of Tricarico confirmed its status as a diocesan Marian sanctuary. It remains a quiet, wooded retreat, its cult centred on that Renaissance image of grace.

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