Chiesetta di Santa Maria delle Grazie in Monte

A few steps below the great Pieve of San Pietro, Zuglio keeps a smaller, quieter church: the Chiesetta di Santa Maria delle Grazie in Monte. The church is part of the Diocese of Udine and plays a role in the Bacio delle Croci rite held on Ascension Day.

Why it matters

The church stands on the slope below the Pieve of San Pietro, forming part of Zuglio's sacred hillside. It is a subsidiary church of the Diocese of Udine, complementing the Pieve's parish role. Its local significance is especially visible in its part in the Bacio delle Croci, the Kiss of the Crosses.

What to notice

The Marian dedication, Our Lady of Graces, places the church within a tradition of communal prayer. On Ascension Day, processional crosses from surrounding churches gather here before proceeding to the Plan da Vincule and the Bacio delle Croci rite, in which the crosses salute the Pieve's silver cross.

Context and history

The church belongs to the long religious history of a hill that was sacred ground long before the present buildings. Zuglio, the Roman Iulium Carnicum, was among the earliest Christianised towns of the Alps, and after the ancient diocese faded the Pieve of San Pietro became the mother church of Carnia's eleven pievi, with lesser churches — sussidiarie — serving the daily devotion of the scattered settlements. The chiesetta under the Pieve is one such subsidiary church of the parish of Zuglio, and its Marian dedication of "Grazie" belongs to a devotion that spread widely in the late medieval and modern Alps. The church's early building history remains uncertain, and its founding date is unknown.