Madonna della Cava Sanctuary

A hidden treasure

The present building comes forth from the works followed to the II world war. The former church had been built in 1628 on a little underground church with a single aisle and three archways.

The present building comes forth from the works followed to the II world war. The former church had been built in 1628 on a little underground church with a single aisle and three archways. The vault was made of a granitic block and on its floor there is a pit. Left to the altar a stair leads to a second cave where it is said the sacred image was. As the iconoclast prosecutions by Leone III Isaurico made every image went destroyed, this one like several other simulacra, had been hidden by Christians. The legend tells that in 1514 the Augustunuan Leonardo Savina had had  a dreaming vision of where to find the Madonna image, in the same vision he was ordered to build there a church. Works had immediately started and the sacred image was found in 1518 thanks to the collapse of a rock. In the very same place were built a chapel with its court-yard and some little cells  for the anchorets. Later even a monastery was built there. This first chapel underwent several changes and enlargements.
 The sacred image is a fresco representing the Madonna with the child. They seam to be looking they who stare at them and have a blessing appearance. Jesus the child holds a globus cruciger. The painting shows a plain Byzantine taste. In 1721 the building was finished. All these extraordinary events are recorded on two frescoes placed in the Madonna della Cava chapel of the Santa Maria Maggiore church in Pietraperzia, and on a chalk bas-relief which was put aside the altar. The church preserves besides: works by Antonello Gagini; two big paintings from the XVIII c. and a pipes-organ from 1845 by Gueli.