Santuario di Nostra Signora di Reggio

At 317 metres above Vernazza, the sanctuary of Nostra Signora di Reggio has drawn pilgrims since the thirteenth century. Its Romanesque facade, square, mask-carved fountain and old trees stand among the olive terraces above the village.

Why it matters

Documented from 1248, the sanctuary is among the oldest continuous sacred sites on this coast. It stands on a paved mule track that connects Vernazza with the hill villages and was used by farmers and herders. The sanctuary remains a place of pilgrimage. Since 1853, a vow has brought the effigy of the Madonna down to Vernazza before its return in solemn procession.

What to notice

The gabled Romanesque facade faces the square. The image of the Virgin is central to the sanctuary's devotion. While legend credits the painting to Saint Luke, scholarship attributes it to a fourteenth-century Genoese workshop. A fountain in the square has carved mask spouts; the surrounding trees include holm oaks, cedars, horse chestnuts and an ancient cypress estimated at about eight hundred years old. The chapel of San Bernardo and marble Via Crucis reliefs are among the features of the path.

Context and history

Reggio grew from the devotional habits of a working landscape. The first record in 1248 falls in the century when Vernazza, already loyal to Genoa, was consolidating the hillside terraces that UNESCO's World Heritage citation describes as the making of this cultural landscape; a sanctuary at the halfway spring served the people who built and farmed those terraces. The image of the Madonna, attributed by scholarship to a fourteenth-century Genoese school, became the focus of a cult that included a coronation ceremony in 1853 and a recurring procession bringing the image down to the village. The diocese of La Spezia, Sarzana and Brugnato includes the sanctuary among the places of worship of the Vernazza parish.