Santuario di Castelmonte

The first official document describing the splendor of this Marian sanctuary dates to 1244. In 1253 the sanctuary was fortified and passed into the possession of the chapter of Santa Maria Assunta of Cividale; it is also documented that from the 6th to the 9th century many pilgrims went to the top of the mountain to ask for graces or to give thanks for having received them. On 21 September 1469 a lightning bolt destroyed the bell tower and much of the church and incinerated the ancient effigy of the Virgin (1440), which was lost. On 8 September 1479 at Castelmonte the stone statue known as the “Madonna viva” (“Living Madonna”) was blessed; after the First World War, in 1922, the statue was solemnly crowned. She sits on the high altar (1684) and projects upward through the perspective of the fresco painted by Lorenzo Bianchini in 1870, which depicts her assumed into heaven, at the feet of the Trinity. The side altars are of Venetian origin, dated 1687; on the left is a painting by Chiarottini (1767): three angels, one with the chalice and the host, protect Saint Anthony of Padua and the youth Saint Vitus, one of the helper saints, protector against epilepsy. On the right the Most Holy Trinity with Pope Gregory I, called the Great, who evangelized the Lombards, and Saint Jerome, who in 366 arrived in Aquileia, with beside him the lion from which he removed the thorn. As you descend to reach the crypt, rich in ex‑votos, pause to look at the faces, portrayed in two paintings, of two important figures who came to Castelmonte: Saint Benedict Joseph Labre and Blessed Benedetta Boiani, who made the “lace embroidered together with the angels,” kept in the Christian Museum of Cividale.

For information about opening times, please contact the Pro Loco Nediške Doline – Valli del Natisone APS office.