Santuario della Madonna dell'Aiuto

The Sanctuary of the Madonna dell'Aiuto in Bobbio grew around a Marian fresco once painted on a vineyard wall outside the medieval gate. Rebuilt from 1621, the sanctuary combines a Baroque upper church with a lower chapel that preserves the older image.

Why it matters

The sanctuary's history joins local devotion with successive phases of architecture and art. Tradition associates its origins with a reported change in the appearance of the fresco in 1472, after which a chapel was built to protect the image. The devotion received the title Beata Vergine dell'Aiuto in 1611 and eventually gave rise to the present sanctuary.

What to notice

The façade carries five stucco statues made by Cristoforo Ciseri in 1659. Inside, a single barrel-vaulted nave leads toward the transept, whose dome was frescoed by Vittorio Pittaco in 1912. Works by Salvatore Pozzo decorate the transept chapels. Two staircases beside the presbytery descend to the fifteenth-century lower church of the Annunciation, where the older Marian image is set within an altar made in 1807.

Context and history

According to the sanctuary's tradition, the original fresco of the Madonna and Child was painted on a vineyard wall by the late fourteenth century. A chapel was built after the reported event of 1472; the bishop formally recognised the title Madonna dell'Aiuto in 1611. Work on the present church began in 1621, and it was consecrated on 13 July 1738. Architect Ettore Mayer reworked the façade in 1929, and Pope Paul VI raised the sanctuary to the rank of minor basilica in 1970.