What to see at the Madonna della Fontana Sanctuary, history and itinerary including the crypt and noteworthy frescoes, the liturgy of the waters and the Holy Rosary on the first Saturday of the month.
Tourist information
In Lombardy, in Casalmaggiore, a town in the province of Cremona, stands the Madonna della Fontana Sanctuary, a center of Marian spirituality and devotion.
The current building, dating back to the fifteenth century, stands on the place where there was a chapel, a place where an image of the Blessed Virgin, called dei Bagni, was venerated even before the year 1000, as it was located near water sources spring.
Nearby is the Pozzo di Santa Maria, a place where, according to tradition, the miracle of the man born blind happened, who regained his sight simply by wetting his eyes with the water of the well.
Following this episode, which occurred in 1320, a first Sanctuary was erected in place of the chapel, later enlarged and completed in 1463.
What see
In the crypt there is a seventeenth-century marble basin, where water from the source is collected, and a fourteenth-century fresco depicting the Virgin Mary with baby Jesus, a painting made on top of even older dating images.
At the entrance of the Church it is possible to admire a fresco by Filippo Mazzola, father of Francesco Mazzola called Parmigianino, who in Casalmaggiore created works of great prestige, now preserved elsewhere.
At the Shrine, during the main Marian feasts and on the first Saturday of the month, the liturgy of the waters takes place with the recitation of the Holy Rosary, the Holy Mass, the procession and the entrance into the Fountain of the garden to pray with your feet immersed in the water, reciting the plea to Our Lady of the Fountain.
Prayer to the Madonna
Virgin Mary,
that since ancient times,
in this place of solitude and peace
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you have shown yourselves an inexhaustible source of thanks
towards your devoted children by converting sinners,
comforting the afflicted, warding off plagues, hurricanes
and giving health to the sick with the water that flows at the foot of this effigy of yours;
still show yourself merciful to me by freeing me from spiritual worries
and corporal from which I am distressed,
and by granting me the grace I need so much.
Maria,
Thank you,
pray for me.
