Santuario della Madonna dei Fiori, Bra site features

There are two sanctuaries here, three centuries apart, and a garden between them.

The Santuario Antico was erected in Baroque style in 1626, on the place where an earlier chapel commemorated the miracle. Inside, in a side chapel, is the statue of the Madonna dei Fiori, which is carried in procession on 8 September, the day of the patronal feast. The same subject is also painted here by the Flemish painter Jean Claret.

The Santuario Nuovo was begun in 1933 to a design by the engineer Bartolomeo Gallo. It is open for celebrations but still unfinished — which is the honest description of it nearly a century on. It is frescoed by Piero Dalle Ceste, who also painted a large canvas of the apparition of the Virgin to Egidia Mathis. A mosaic by Father Marko Ivan Rupnik stands at its entrance.

Beneath the new sanctuary is the crypt, where prayer meetings are held in the evenings.

Around them: the garden known as the "Pruneto" — the blackthorn ground itself — the canonical house, the oratory buildings, and the annexed "Beato Valfrè" rest home for elderly priests.

The Pruneto

The garden of blackthorn, and the reason the sanctuary exists. The record states that the bushes still flower every year in full winter rather than in spring, and that science has not been able to explain it.

The Santuario Antico, 1626

Baroque, raised where an earlier chapel already commemorated the miracle — so the 1626 church is itself the second building on the spot.

The statue of the Madonna dei Fiori

In a side chapel of the old sanctuary, and carried in procession on 8 September, the patronal feast.

Jean Claret's painting

The Flemish painter treated the same subject here — the same hand that painted the Battle of Lepanto in the sacristy of Sant'Andrea across town.

The Santuario Nuovo, begun 1933 and unfinished

By the engineer Bartolomeo Gallo, open to celebrations but still incomplete. Piero Dalle Ceste frescoed it and painted the large canvas of the apparition to Egidia Mathis.

The crypt

Under the new sanctuary, used for evening prayer meetings — the most-used space in the complex and the least visited.