santuario, regionale, basilica, Maria SS.ma Incoronata del Pettoruto

On a spur of Monte La Mula, at about six hundred metres, the Santuario Basilica Maria SS.ma Incoronata del Pettoruto perches among the Pollino massif. The name ‘Pettoruto’ derives from petruto, rocky, bristling with stones, an apt description of this imperious, dramatic terrain, where the view stretches away to the Ionian Sea. The approach is a penitential climb known as the Via del Rosario: a switchbacked, steep ascent designed to prepare the pilgrim, through meditation on the mysteries, for the reward of sanctuary at the summit.

The church, built in the Baroque period, was raised to a minor basilica in the late twentieth century and later declared a diocesan sanctuary, recognised as such ‘ab immemorabili’. It is twinned with the national sanctuary of Fatima. The site’s history is entwined with a local legend: in the seventeenth century, a deaf-mute shepherd boy is said to have encountered the Virgin here. This is a place of rugged devotion, where stone and sky meet, and the effort of arrival is part of the grace.

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