CARAVAGGIO, SANTUARIO DELLA MADONNA di. - The principal Marian sanctuary of Lombardy, about 2 km from C. (province of Bergamo), to which it is connected by a broad avenue. It owes its origin to an apparition of the Virgin to a humble peasant woman, Giovannetta or Giannetta di Pietro Vacchi (26 May 1432), in the meadow called Massalengo. Its fame soon spread, even far afield, and Giovannetta was received at the court of the Sforza and of the emperor of Constantinople, Costantino Paleologo. On the site
of the apparition there still springs a fountain whose water is also used for bathing the sick.
The first church at the sanctuary was erected by Duke Filippo Maria Sforza in 1451. The present church, 93 m long and 33 m wide, with a dome 64 m high, was built, in place of another threatening ruin, by the architect Tibaldo Pellegrino, called il Tibaldi, at the wish of s. Carlo Borromeo. Construction, however, lasted from 1575 until the end of the 18th century, and its painted decoration was completed by two artists from Caravaggio, Giovanni Moriggia in 1854 and Luigi Cavenaghi between 1891 and 1901. The church is in the form of a Latin cross, with a sumptuous small temple beneath the dome. The image of the Virgin was crowned in 1710.
The principal feast of the sanctuary, which draws the largest gathering of the faithful, is on 26 May; there are also celebrations on 15 Aug. and 16 Sept. Attached to the sanctuary is also a hospice for pilgrims.