santuario di Santa Rosalia (Santuario di Santa Rosalia, Palermo)

In 1624 the construction sanctuary at this site was patronized by the senate of Palermo and the cardinal archbishop Giannetino Doria. Since the 12th-century and linked to Rosalia, there appears to have been prior chapels or churches at this mountain which appears to have been a locus attracting religious hermits, much like Rosalia herself. By 1474, an eremitic community was located near the grotto; by 1574 it had become affiliated with the Franciscan order. In 1626, this monastery was suppressed.
Located high on the mountain, upon arrival to the locale, one ascends from a herd of souvenir stands to the sanctuary proper by an arduous staircase of over 70 steps. The yellow three story structure has a church facade on the right, merging with the cliff. The left structure has a frieze reading Pio Refugio Orfanelli Santa Rosalia/ Opera Don Orione, recalling the presence of a former orphanage for girls at the site. Since 1946, the custodians of the Sanctuary are Orionine brothers, members of a congregation called Sons of Divine Providence.
The sanctuary has been for centuries a site for pilgrimage for both the faithful and the tourists. Goethe visited the site in 1787, describing the sacred spot as one that better befits the humility of the saint than the sumptuous festivities that are celebrated to commemorate her retirement from the world. A British traveler of the 1880s describes the festival of Santa Rosalia as resembling a pagan saturnalia. The Baedeker guide from 1893 describes the zig-zag ascent up the mountain, for which donkeys could be hired to lead up to sanctuary through a hillside teeming with goats. It describes the Grotto of St Rosalia as a small decorated candle-lit cavern visited by numerous worshippers.
The church facade leads to an open air room where…