Santuario di Monte Berico Historical Timeline

Origins

The site dates from 1426, when a local woman, Vincenza Pasini, reported two apparitions of the Virgin on the hill during an outbreak of plague, with the instruction to build a church there. A small chapel went up within three months.

Turning points

A larger Gothic church replaced it later in the fifteenth century, and in 1688 Carlo Borella rebuilt it again on a Baroque plan, incorporating the older structure rather than clearing it.

Influential people

The arcaded stair up the hill -- the Portici -- was built between 1746 and 1778 to designs by Francesco Muttoni, giving pilgrims a covered climb of around 700 metres.

Cultural evolution

The hill was the site of the decisive Battle of Monte Berico in June 1848, when Austrian forces took Vicenza from the Italian volunteers holding it. A memorial and ossuary on the summit commemorate it.

Present-day significance

Monte Berico remains Vicenza's principal place of pilgrimage; the feast of the Madonna on 8 September is the city's own festival. Veronese's Supper of St Gregory the Great hangs in the refectory, cut apart by Austrian soldiers in 1848 and painstakingly restored.