The Sanctuary of the Madonna del Soccorso in Cori dates back to 1634 and was built by expanding a previous chapel dedicated to an apparition of the Madonna.
The project is by the architect Mario Arconti and the facade has a portico with three round arches. In the 1950s, a hotel for pilgrims was built next to the church.
The interior of the church with a single nave covered by barrel vaults ending in a dome surmounted by a lantern.
On the sides of the nave there are 4 altars and just below the dome there is the door of the original Chapel of the Apparition.
The interior style is baroque, like that of the era of construction, and contains many treasures such as a fourteenth-century image of the Madonna with child, angels and Olives from the Florentine school.
A legend says that on May 4, 1521 a little girl named Oliva who went to visit her mother who worked in the fields was lost in the Cori mountains during a great storm. Oliva sought shelter under a broom and here the Virgin appeared to her and protected her and fed her for 8 days.
Just in the place where the little Oliva was found, an icon of the Madonna was also found and the same year it was decided to build a chapel to protect the painting.
So many pilgrims arrived at the place that within a century it was decided to enlarge the chapel and to build the sanctuary that we can admire today.
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