SANTUARIO MADONNA DELLA CAVA

The present church is fruit of the post war reconstruction of the church of 1628, which rose above an underground church with a single nave, articulated by three arcades. The vault is made of a mass of granite and in the floor is a well. On the left hand side of the altar a stairway leads to another cave which according to tradition was where the simulacrum of the Madonna della Cava-Madonna of the quarry was hidden.

history of the rediscovery

The cult dates back to the time of the iconoclast persecutions (726-730), when the emperor Leone III l’Isaurico ordered the destruction of all the simulacrums, many of which were hidden. According to tradition, in 1514, the Augustinian priest Leonardo Savina had a vision of the Madonna who indicated the place where he would find her effigy and ordered him to build a church. Excavations of the quarry of via XIX Luglio, then via dei Santi were carried out straight away and on the 19th January 1518, following the collapse of a mass, the cave which hid the simulacrum of Madonna, who became patron saint of the city, was discovered.