Why pilgrims come
A sacred place worth the journey.
A living diocesan Marian shrine and minor basilica built into the rock of Mount Baldo above the Adige valley. Medieval documents place hermits and a chapel here centuries before the shrine’s later expansion. The sanctuary itself records, but also historically questions, a pious tradition that the venerated image arrived miraculously from Rhodes in 1522; Catholic Tourist does not present that story as an approved apparition or established historical event.
The pilgrim’s guide
What makes this visit meaningful
Descend from Spiazzi to a basilica that seems suspended between the Mount Baldo rock and the Adige valley. The pilgrimage is more than the famous cliffside view: medieval hermitage, Marian prayer, the venerated Pietà, ex-votos, the Way of the Cross, and a living daily liturgy form one continuous sacred landscape.
A basilica held by the rock
Approach the sanctuary at 774 meters above sea level, where the church is set directly against the Mount Baldo cliff.
The venerated Pietà
Pray before the stone image associated with Our Lady of Sorrows and read it within the shrine’s documented fifteenth-century history.
Tradition and evidence side by side
Learn why the shrine preserves the beloved Rhodes narrative while also acknowledging evidence that complicates a literal 1522 origin story.
Ex-votos and the Way of the Cross
Follow centuries of thanksgiving and the modern bronze Stations that turn the mountain approach into a devotional journey.
Continue nearby