Madonna dell'Acqua, Roman Catholic sanctuary in Molino Vecchio, Valbrevenna, Italy.
Madonna dell'Acqua is a small single-nave church with a front portico on the left bank of the Brevenna stream in Molino Vecchio, a hamlet of Valbrevenna. Its altar holds an early 18th-century marble statue of the Madonna, known as Madonna dei Tartari, by an unknown Genoese artist. A pilgrim hospice was added beside it in 1908–1909.
The sanctuary traces its origin to 1584, when a shepherdess from the vanished village of Ravino and the parish priest of Pareto were healed at a spring during a plague epidemic. A wooden chapel was built by the source, replaced in 1744 by the present single-nave church. A pilgrim hospice was added in 1908–1909, and the building has been under heritage protection since 1934.
The patronal feast is held on the second Sunday of July, drawing pilgrims and residents of Valbrevenna. On the last Sunday of October the sanctuary hosts a thanksgiving for the fruits of the earth and the summer season. From July to September, Mass is celebrated every Sunday and holiday at 5:30 pm.
The sanctuary stands on the left bank of the Brevenna stream in the Molino Vecchio hamlet. A landslide on the night of 13–14 September 2015 swept away the forecourt, portico and supporting wall and destroyed the bridge linking it to the provincial road; reconstruction began on 15 June 2016 and was completed in 2017. The rebuilt portico has a simple gabled roof on square pillars.
The marble statue on the altar, called Nostra Signora dell'Acqua or Madonna dei Tartari, is the work of an unknown Genoese artist from the early 18th century. The 2015 landslide swept away the churchyard, the portico and the supporting wall and toppled the bridge to the provincial road; rebuilding began on 15 June 2016 and was finished in 2017, paid for by insurance and carried out with volunteers from across the valley.
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