Santuario di Santa Maria delle Armi

The Sanctuary of St. Mary of the weapons is among the most valuable monuments of Medieval origin of Calabria. It is located in the territory of Cerchiara, at the slopes of Sellaro Mount, which offers amazing views to the Plain of Sybaris and the Gulf of Taranto. Today's Sanctuary is located on a historic Byzantine site. In a document dated 1192 we learn that the monastery is female; during the fifteenth century, after a likely period of abandonment, the church is once again a place of pilgrimage. From 1517 the lords of Cerchiara, Principles Sanseverino of Bisignano and Pignatelli, they increased the monument, adding the gallery, altars and eighteenth-century frescoes in the Chapel of Our Lady.