Located on the highest point of Monte Isola, from the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Ceriola you can enjoy a wide panorama of Lake Iseo and the mountains that surround it. The first church was built, probably on the ruins of a pagan temple, in the XIII century. The current building dates back to the Sixteenth Century, but its interior was modified in the next century with the insertion of a new presbytery. The bell tower was built in 1750. The sanctuary was the first church dedicated to Our Lady to be built in the area of Lake Iseo. The wooden statue venerated in the shrine dates back to the XII century and is known with the name of Madonna della Ceriola probably because the type of wood used is the Cerro. Represents the Virgin on the throne with her child in her arms. Inside the sanctuary, besides some frescoes and paintings and two valuable sculptures that flank the statue of the Virgin, are also hosted numerous ex-voto reminiscent of Le Grazie attributed to Our Lady. Among these one of those who had greater resonance was the protection afforded to the inhabitants of the island against a cholera epidemic broke out in Lombardy in 1836: as a sign of thanksgiving is still celebrated, every second Sunday of July, the feast called the Madonna of cholera.
In 1924 there was a solemn coronation of the statue; the corona d’oro was made thanks to the fusion of jewelry donated by the inhabitants of Monte Isola. The Sanctuary is served by a cobblestone mule which connects it to the Fraction treatments (466 m a.s.l.). It is also possible to climb on foot, with a longer path to a path that starts in the vicinity of the landing stage of Peschiera Maraglio. Along the path that leads to the sanctuary there are 15 chapels that celebrate the mysteries of the Rosary, built in the second half of the Twentieth Century.