Top of the World
The Sanctuary, dedicated to Maria SS. di Pietrasanta, is located in the Cilento National Park, about 2 kilometers from the town of San Giovanni a Piro (SA) and, from an altitude of 650 meters above sea level, dominates the Gulf of Policastro. It is possible to reach the shrine by a convenient asphalt road or by the old stone stepped road with a winding path practicable only on foot.
It was the Basilian monks of the nearby Cenobio of St. John the Baptist who carved, around 1200, on the monolithic tip of Mount Piccotta, the statue of Our Lady forming a single body with the niche hollowed out in the stone. The rock chapel with a small semi-cylindrical apse dedicated to the Virgin, originally capable of holding just a few dozen people, was later enlarged several times. Of the original construction, only part of the apse remains today. The building is built with a single nave, and its development is characteristic in that it is not aligned with the chancel, since the latter was built on the rock stop, to the west, on an irregular plane. Attached to the church are several rooms once used as living quarters. On the outside, to the left, next to the sacristy, also on the rock ledge rises the three-story bell tower, with two bells. A few steps below the bell tower is a spring that has always been considered miraculous.
