Montenero is a hilly district of the town of Livorno and is famous for the shrine of Our Lady of Grace, the patron saint of Tuscany. In ancient times this hill was known as the Devil's Mountain, in the presence of a thick forest that inspired awe among the travelers. Its development was due to the Marian shrine, strongly altered and enlarged in the eighteenth century. At the same time also became a sought Montenero resort and numerous villas were built. This allowed him to Carlo Goldoni's comedy set in Montenero The craving for a holiday. Among the many residences are reminiscent of the Villa delle Rose (the late seventeenth century), Villa's Fool, original farmhouse Medici, the Villa Carboni (eighteenth century), the seventeenth of Pianacce, Villa Azzurra Art Nouveau. In 1908 was inaugurated the characteristic funicular connects the lower town (Low Montenero) with Montenero Alto. The Sanctuary of Montenero is an architectural complex of ancient origin: indeed, according to popular legend, a shepherd lame in 1345, finding at the foot of a painting depicting the Virgin Mary, he had a vision through which he was forced to carry the effigy up on top of the hill, where he arrived cured of his illness. In memory of this legend, at the beginning of the road that leads to the shrine, was built the little chapel of the Apparition, built in 1603 and replaced in 1956 by a larger church. The fame associated with that event was so much that by the end of the fourteenth century the number of pilgrims allowed the expansion of the first oratory. Between the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the shrine was expanded to almost its present form. |
