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The icon
A pilgrim is said to have brought an icon from Constantinople
Tradition holds that in the 12th century a pilgrim from the Byzantine Empire brought an icon of the Virgin from Saint Sophia in Constantinople. In 1160 the bishop gave it to a hermitage-chapel on the hill tended by two holy women, Azzolina and Beatrice Guezi.
The portico
A covered walk of 666 arches climbs the hill
The traditional way up is a 3.8 km portico with 666 arches, built between 1674 and 1793. It was designed to shelter the annual procession of the icon of the Virgin Mary. In 2021 it was inscribed as part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site The Porticoes of Bologna.
666arches in the 3.8 km portico up the hill
The church
The Dominican friars stayed on the hill from 1294 until Napoleon
Construction of a church began in 1193. In 1294 friars of the Dominican order came to the site, and stayed until the Napoleonic suppression of 1799. The present church was built in 1723 to designs by Carlo Francesco Dotti.
The cable car
A cable car ran to the summit from 1931 to 1976
From 1931 to 1976 an aerial cable car ran from the foot of the hill to the summit, 1328 metres in 7 minutes. It closed because more people drove up the hill. The top station is abandoned but intact.
The climb
Cyclists race up the same road
The road to the church is often used in professional cycling races. It made its debut in the Giro d'Italia in 1956, in an individual time trial won by Charly Gaul. The climb also featured in the final part of Stage 2 of the 2024 Tour de France.
Day 3, morning
Next is Mercato delle Erbe.
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The words are a retelling of the Wikipedia article Madonna di San Luca, Bologna, and are shared under CC BY-SA 4.0. They are checked against those articles, and a fact that is not in them is left out.