Santuario delle Cappelle (Sanctuary of the Chapels)

The Santuario delle Cappelle stands about 2 km from Laino Borgo, in open country looking towards the Pollino mountains. It is also known as the sanctuary of the Holy Sepulchre or of Maria Santissima dello Spasimo: it is a Sacred Mount dedicated to Our Lady of Sorrows, the Madonna dello Spasimo. Its story begins in 1557, when Domenico Longo, a Laino pilgrim returning from Jerusalem, set out to reproduce at home the holy places he had visited. Since then the chapels have been built, enlarged and decorated in several phases: each recalls an episode or a place from the life of Christ, the Virgin or the saints, from the grotto of Bethlehem to the crucifixion, from the tomb of St Joseph to that of St Helena, and each is frescoed and accompanied by lines from the Gospel. One of the chapels, dedicated to the Madonna dello Spasimo, is now part of the church’s high altar. The interior is simple, with a single nave, a ceiling frescoed with the Deposition and two side altars dedicated to the Holy Trinity and the Baptism of Jesus; the façade, altered several times, has the appearance it was given at the end of the nineteenth century, with a single doorway. The Madonna delle Cappelle has her own feast on the third Sunday of September, dating back to the eighteenth century: walking in procession behind the statue of the Virgin, the faithful carry arrangements of flowers and candles on their heads, accompanied by traditional music.