Santuario della Madonna delle Grazie di San Martino

Above Griante, the sixteenth-century Church of San Martino became a Marian sanctuary associated with a local legend about a carved statue of the Madonna that would not remain in the village below. The church stands on the Sasso di San Martino overlooking Lake Como.

Why it matters

The sanctuary preserves a pilgrimage tradition associated with a local legend about the statue. It stands on an open plateau above the lake, at about 475 metres, within the same parish as the lakeside church of Santi Nabore e Felice.

What to notice

The modest sixteenth-century church contains a wooden Madonna and Child described in local tradition as a fifteenth-century carving. Mosaics depicting episodes from the life of Christ decorate chapels near the sanctuary. The Chapel of the Alpini, dedicated to Saint Charles, has a painted altar scene and walls depicting alpine soldiers; the work is attributed by the official account to Azzimonti of Menaggio. The plateau overlooks Bellagio and both shores of the lake.

Context and history

A church of San Martino existed on this slope by the sixteenth century, serving the fields and hamlets on the mountainside above Griante. The transformation into a Marian shrine came through the statue legend: in the seventeenth century, so the story goes, a local girl found the wooden Madonna in a mountain cave where it had supposedly been hidden a century earlier during raids by soldiers from the Grisons; carried down to the parish church, the statue was repeatedly found back on the Sasso, which was read as the Madonna's wish to be venerated on the rock. The sanctuary then took the titular name Madonna delle Grazie. The official account published by Promo Menaggio ETS records the legend and the statue; the Diocese of Como lists the sanctuary among the worship places of the parish of Griante.