Santuario della Madonna del Frassino, Religious sanctuary in Oneta, Italy.
The Santuario della Madonna del Frassino is a sanctuary in the Oneta area, situated at about 954 meters elevation on Mount Alben's slopes with a three-nave church and bell tower. The building features a main nave with side aisles, while views extend across the Riso Valley from the church grounds.
The sanctuary was built after the 1512 apparition of the Virgin to the blind shepherdess Petruccia Carobbio and was completed in 1520 as a small country oratory dedicated to the Visitation. It was rebuilt in 1524, visited by Bishop Pietro Lippomano in 1536 and by Carlo Borromeo in 1575, and the bell tower was raised in 1628, then rebuilt in 1725. On 19 July 1914 Cardinal Andrea Ferrari crowned the devotional statue with a gold crown of 352 grams; Giovanni Roncalli, later pope, attended.
The name refers to the ash tree (frassino) beside which, by tradition, the blind shepherdess Petruccia Carobbio was healed in 1512. The church was first dedicated to the Visitation of Mary to Elizabeth, and a spring that reportedly began flowing at the apparition still stands in the portico. A small box holding a cloth stained with blood, described as the tears of a painted Madonna, was recorded during Carlo Borromeo's 1575 pastoral visit.
The church stands on a hilltop away from the built-up centre, reached by a climb; the forecourt ends in a low barrier of shaped concrete slabs. The overhanging wooden roof eaves shelter the facade and those standing at the door. The water spring linked to the 1512 event is in the portico.
The original 17th-century statue of the Virgin, too worn for the 1914 coronation, is kept in the church of San Rocco in Oneta, still dressed in its original ornaments. The new statue was made by Giovanni Manzoni, with a throne by Ruggero Rossi.
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