Church of Piedigrotta

The Piedigrotta Church is one of the jewels of Pizzo, in the province of Vibo Valentia.

Entirely excavated in the sandstone rock, right on the stretch of sea that overlooks the splendid ‘Costa degli Dei’ Regional Marine Park, the Piedigrotta Church was built by some Neapolitan shipwrecked sailors, at the end of the 17th century, to thank God for having saved themselves from the storm.

The sailors attributed the miracle to the protection of a painting of the Madonna that was on the ship and which they found on the beach. Once rescued together with the miraculous picture, the sailors, out of devotion, dug a small chapel in the rock, today's Piedigrotta Church, and placed the sacred image there (renamed Madonna di Piedigrotta). 

Around 1880, local artist Angelo Barone, followed by his son Alfonso, began to enlarge and decorate the chapel with statues depicting scenes and characters from the Holy Scriptures and the Life of Christ, carved from the tuffaceous rock itself.

The painting of the Madonna of Piedigrotta is the object of heartfelt popular devotion and the annual Feast of the Madonna of Piedigrotta. The feast takes place on 2 July, preceded by a novena, and sees the effigy as the protagonist of a characteristic procession at sea led by the boat ‘’Perla Nera‘’, decorated with flowers and coloured banderoles.

This mixture of local history and legend makes Piedigrotta unique.