It is the main Marian place of worship in Porretta. Close to the town, the shrine greets those arriving from Tuscany from its typical bottleneck on the Reno River. In the Middle Ages it was a fortified place, a “Rocchetta” with a small wooden bridge at the head of which rose a Majesty that someone painted on the rock, according to some, such as Demetrio Lorenzini, even in the 13th-14th centuries.
The first certain news about the existence of a small shrine, however, is only from 1578. Shortly thereafter, in 1585, the Parish of Porretta was also born, which in that year broke away from the Mother Church of Capugnano. During this period many events believed to be miraculous occurred, witnessed by numerous ex-votos, almost always tablets, which tell us of ruinous falls without damage or of buckshot fired by powerful arquebuses stopped simply by the fabric of a “giuppone” In 1594 the wooden bridge collapsed and the many people who were involved miraculously suffered no damage. The bridge was rebuilt in masonry in 1599 as a plaque on the right side of the church still reminds us. The deteriorating Image of Our Lady was repainted, no longer on the rock but on a wooden tablet most likely by the painter Fernando Berti.
In 1613, following the example of Our Lady of St. Luke, the tradition began, which has lasted uninterruptedly until today, of solemnly bringing the picture to the parish on the occasion of the “Rogations” that culminated in the Feast of the Ascension. Great was at all times the devotion of the people of Porretta, who invoked the Virgin always and not in vain even during cholera epidemics or earthquakes. In the meantime the old oratory had been demolished and with a great job of excavating rock walls the area on which the present small temple was built at the end of the second half of the nineteenth century was created, neo-classical octagonal in shape and designed by Eng. Saverio Bianchi of Rome, who, however, never came to Porretta. The elegant interior has paintings by Samoggia and Guardassoni. The splendid marble altarpiece of the Altar of Our Lady is by Antonio Canepa based on designs by Saverio Bianchi. Under the floor, in front of the sacred Image, rests Monsignor Raffaele Pizzirani, the parish priest who died in the odor of sanctity and who built the church.