Piazza della Basilica, 1, 23037 Tirano SO
Built on the spot where the Virgin appeared in front of local resident Mario Omodei on 29 September 1504, it’s separate from the fortified town and sits strategically at the junction to the ancient church of Santa Perpetua that dominates the Tirano basin on a hilltop shaped by vineyards.
A realistic-looking fresco from 1513 on the left nave depicts the Scene of the Apparition, showing the area as it was at the beginning of the 1500s. Today, a long, tree-lined avenue connects Tirano vecchia (the old town) with the piazza of the Basilica, which is a reference point for the valley and iconic passage for the Bernina Express train, surprising tourists and pilgrims as it passes within metres of the site.
As an expression of the Lombard Renaissance, note its pyramidal shapes and regular placement of the oculi, the Rodarian-style small entrances (1506), and the magnificent main doorway (1530–34), a masterpiece by Alessandro Della Scala, originally from Carona.
Giovan Angelo Del Maino, a renowned Lombardian master woodworker was enlisted in 1519 to furnish the special chapel, building a superb four-sided altar for Tirano that allowed worshippers to admire the statue of the Madonna above before retreating to the back to gather in prayer at the foot of the scurolo, where statuettes depict the Apparition.
Desecrated during the Napoleonic era, the wooden altar has been replaced by a marble one in the same form. As a sign of honour, the stunning, much venerated painted and gilded wooden statue of the Madonna di Tirano remains – the ‘Celestial patron of Valtellina’ since 1946.
