Sant'Anna, Catholic pilgrimage church in Vinadio, Italy.
Sant'Anna is a church of square stone blocks in tan and grey tones, its facade rising to a pointed gable topped by a small dark statue. A square stone bell tower with arched openings stands to the right, crowned by a pyramidal spire and a cross. The central facade has a round window with a cross design above a twin-arched window with columns, and a lower porch with a grey metal roof forms three white arches above a stone base.
The sanctuary began as a church-hostel called Ospizio di S. Maria di Brasca, documented in 1307, serving travellers on the Alpine passes. A 1443 text first names the church after Saint Anne rather than Mary. The present church was inaugurated in 1681, with a floor laid on glacier-smoothed rock. Wars in 1793–1796 and 1940 caused looting and devastation, and the 1929 Concordat assigned the sanctuary to the Diocese of Cuneo.
The patronal feast is held on 26 July, when pilgrims come up from Vinadio and the French side of the Colle della Lombarda. A relic of Saint Anne, given by the cathedral of Apt, was placed in 1722 in the arm of the statue still honoured today. The last warden, Lidio Giraudo, served the sanctuary for fifty-three years.
The site is accessible via a provincial road connecting through Vinadio, with parking spaces available near the religious complex. The mountain road typically remains passable during the snow-free season and standard driving conditions apply.
The floor of the church slopes upward because it was laid directly on glacier-smoothed rock. About 700 metres away, on the mule track toward the Colle di Sant'Anna, stands the Roccia dell'Apparizione, topped by a statue of Anne and Mary looking down at the shepherdess Anna Bagnis.
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