Sanctuary of Saint Francis of Paola

The Sanctuary of Saint Francis of Paola stands at 178 metres, in the upper part of the town, in a green valley crossed by a stream. It is the heart of the saint’s cult: a destination for pilgrims from all over southern Italy, it keeps part of his remains (the rest are in Tours, France). A minor basilica since 1921 by decision of Benedict XV, it was proclaimed a regional sanctuary on 3 March 2020, five hundred years after his canonisation.

From the great forecourt you enter the 16th-century old basilica: a bare hall with a side aisle and four chapels, culminating in the Baroque chapel that holds the relics left in Paola, garments, bone fragments and a tooth. The cloister hosts the saint’s rose garden and the frescoes of episodes from his life; beside it opens the hermitage of 1436, the cramped underground rooms of the first community of Francis and his companions.

From the arch to the right of the entrance begins the Via dei Miracoli: the kiln where, according to tradition, the saint fired the bricks for the sanctuary and brought his lamb Martinello back to life; the bomb of August 1943, which fell into the stream without exploding; the Cucchiarella spring where pilgrims drink; the Devil’s Bridge, with the footprint legend attributes to the devil, and the Cave of Penance, where Francis lived five years in isolation. The new basilica, opened for the Jubilee of 2000 to a design by Sandro Benedetti, houses a fresco and three large canvases by Bruno d’Arcevia (1997–1998) and a 2004 Mascioni organ with 44 stops and some 2,900 pipes.