Rock Sanctuary of Santa Lucia

We now invite you to visit a unique place of worship: the rock sanctuary of Santa Lucia, or Grotta di Santa Lucia Superiore, carved into a large cave on the slopes of Monte S. Pietro.The Sanctuary was officially recognised by Pope Leo X in 1519, but we know that it had already been the destination of pilgrims and wayfarers for centuries. Indeed, faithful visitors would come here to collect blessed water from the well, which was believed to have healing properties. Santa Lucia Superiore appears today much as it did in the 16th century. You still enter via a wide staircase, preceded by a small suspended square shaded by two cypress trees. The church itself is set within the cave and was enhanced with architectural elements from the 17th and 18th centuries. In the first section, you will find the hermit’s house with its Baroque bell tower. The hermit was an ascetic who lived here in solitude, serving both as a spiritual guide and as guardian of the sanctuary. The raised altar is protected by a 17th-century grille. On it, you can see a marble statue of Saint Lucy by sculptor Taddeo Carlone, an artist of the Genoese school.Just below the altar, where the paved floor ends, two passages begin. They lead to the entrance of the cave and to the well, whose waters are long believed to have miraculous healing properties. Like the underground cave of Santa Lucia Inferiore, this sanctuary also served as a refuge during the bombings of the Second World War.  In that tragic period, two children were born here, named Lucio and Lucia.