Santuario di Nostra Signora di Reggio

The Sanctuary of Our Lady of Reggio stands above Vernazza, its Romanesque façade set among holm oaks, cedars and chestnut trees. The sanctuary is mentioned in records from 1248. Inside is a venerated image of the Virgin, traditionally attributed to Saint Luke but assigned by scholars to a fourteenth-century Genoese school.

Why it matters

Reggio is one of the historic sanctuaries that overlook the villages of the Cinque Terre. Its image has a long devotional history: the park records a coronation ceremony in 1853 and a tradition of carrying the effigy to Vernazza every twenty-five years, where it remains for a week before a solemn procession returns it to the sanctuary.

What to notice

The sanctuary’s Romanesque façade and the Madonna image anchor the site. In the square, a fountain flows from carved masks beneath mature holm oaks, cedars and horse chestnuts. A cypress there is described by the National Park as the oldest monumental cypress in Liguria, estimated at about 800 years old.

The route from Vernazza also passes the chapel of San Bernardo, where marble Stations of the Cross are set into roadside niches and walls. The path and sanctuary form part of the religious and agricultural landscape of the surrounding hills.

Context and history

The sanctuary’s 1248 documentary mention points to an established place of devotion by the thirteenth century. Its Madonna image is associated with a legend of Saint Luke, while art-historical attribution places it in a fourteenth-century Genoese school. The 1853 coronation and the twenty-five-yearly procession to Vernazza remain distinctive elements of the local devotional tradition. The church and its wooded square stand within the hills of Vernazza, where religious sites, paths, olive groves and vineyards are closely connected.