santuario, mariano, diocesano, Santuario Nostra Signora di Prestarona

The Santuario Nostra Signora di Prestarona stands in a valley that takes its name from the Greek for dove: peristeròn. A 1507 parchment in the Gerace archive records that Italo-Greek monks of San Filippo d’Argirò owned the church here before the year 1000, and that every Tuesday they honoured a Madonna painted as ‘Nostra Dama con Gesù in Braza’. The Norman kings of Sicily even stamped her image on coins minted at Mileto.

The site’s older name, ‘Grangia di Prestarona’, recalls the doves that once thronged the nearby acrocoro of Chau. The present sanctuary grew around Byzantine structures, much remodelled over centuries. A small convent attached to the church was long the home of a hermit after the Basilian monks departed. The original icon is lost; a large painting of the Virgin with Saints Philip and Jejunio now fills the high altar. In 1859 a local benefactress donated the fine wooden statue carved by Rocco Larussa.

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