Sanctuary of Cavallero
The pilgrimage church of Cavallero (Italian Santuario del Cavallero ) is a place of worship dedicated to the Virgin Mary (Italian Madonna della Neve ).
It is located at 543 m above sea level. M. just above the mouth of the Rio Cavallero in the Sessera in the municipality of Coggiola in the province of Biella .
description
The construction of the pilgrimage site goes back to tradition that a deaf-mute peasant woman miraculously regained her hearing and voice in 1678 after seeing a vision of the Madonna in this place .
The plan of the church corresponds to the Latin cross . The interior is decorated with plasterwork and frescoes by the painter Pietro Lace from Andorno Micca . The house of God preserves around 300 votive pictures that were left by believers as thanks for received evidence of grace. The religious building complex also includes some chapels and the apartment for the hermits , who were entrusted with the supervision of the pilgrimage site until the 19th century.
The bridge over the Rio Cavallero in front of the church, completed in 1772, is so wide that it can be seen as a square.
The main occasions celebrated in the sanctuary are Madonna della Neve (August 5th) and the day of St. Joseph (March 19).
In summer, the nearby Sessera torrent is popular with bathers; the water coming out of the well to the right of the church is said to have therapeutic effects.
Together with the nearby Sanctuary of Novareia ( Portula ) and other religious buildings of the area belongs to the group of smaller sanctuaries around Biella , extending along the hiking and pilgrimage routes from Coeur and the Path of Saint Charles are.
The Sacro Monte
In the vicinity of the pilgrimage site there are five chapels, which were built between 1710 and 1716 and, true to the tradition of the Sacri Monti in the foothills of the Alps, contain terracotta statues. The statues are attributed to the sculptors of the Valsesia School.
Access
The pilgrimage site can be reached on foot from Coggiola (Zuccaro district) via a small road closed to traffic and via a path that is partly provided with stairs; the distance to the main municipality is 3 km. Another possibility is from Masseranga (portula) on the other side of the Sessera, here you cross the torrent on a pedestrian suspension bridge and thus reach the path a little further down that leads to the pilgrimage site.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Nuova guida di Biella e Provincia; Gabriella Giovannacci Amodeo, Libreria Vittorio Giovannacci, Biella, 1994
- ↑ Nuova guida di Biella e Provincia; Gabriella Giovannacci Amodeo, Libreria Vittorio Giovannacci, Biella, 1994
- ↑ Luciano Vaccaro, Francesca Ricardi, Sacri monti: devozione, arte e cultura della Controriforma, Jaca Book, 1992, pp. 399, 406.
Coordinates: 45 ° 42 '2 " N , 8 ° 9' 36" E