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Località: SP55, 171 - Ceriana - Imperia

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Shrine of Our Lady of the Villa

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Shrine of Our Lady of the Villa

Placed in a spectacular location with an open view of the Armea valley, it is a shrine dear to all Cerianaschi. The site has been known since the 13th century. A country chapel originally stood there, maintained by the Brizio family. The landed property associated with the sacred institution was at the disposal of the Abbey of Sant’Ampelio of Bordighera. During the 17th century there are major reconstruction works, which determine the present form of the structure. The building site of 1668-1669 appears important. In the following century, however, there is a succession of decorative interventions.

A bequest prior to all these undertakings turns out to be fundamental to the events of the sanctuary. It is that of the Genoese noblewoman Antonia Pallavicini Lercari, who left a substantial sum, thanks to an amendment to her will, in 1626. By 1627 the marble statue of the Madonna and Child Jesus, by the Lombard-Genovese Gio Domenico Redi known as “il Paraca,” had arrived. The decorative layout was fine-tuned during the 18th century. From 1777 Ticino-born Vincenzo Adami, who molded the statues of figures related to Mary’s genealogy (Saints Zechariah, John the Baptist, Joachim, Elizabeth, Joseph and Anne). Together with Pietro Lucchesi and Pietro Notari, two others from Ticino, he concluded the ornamental system between 1794 and 1798. At the pictorial level, the interventions of Maurizio Carrega, a well-known late Baroque painter of Roman culture, a native of Porto Maurizio but domiciled in San Remo, appear important. His intervention in the presbytery vault is still debated. He certainly works in the vault of the nave, around 1798, with themes related to the Old Testament.

A scenic conclusion to this entire ornamental journey closes with the great high altar, due to Genoese sculptor Sebastiano Mantero. It is a grandiose marble structure, framing the 17th-century marble statue. It reprises some late Baroque features in a substantially neoclassical layout. One is impressed, however, to think of the effort made by the Cerianaschi to bring the large columns up here, dragging them all the way from the port of San Remo, by dint of oxen and pushing.
The collection of ex-votos is further evidence of the affectionate gratitude the locals have for this shrine.

comuneceriana.im@legalmail.it

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