Santuario della Madonna della Costa
At roughly a hundred metres above Sanremo, the Santuario della Madonna della Costa has been watching the sea long enough to have served as a landmark for sailors who couldn't yet make out the shore. The cypress-and-olive path that brings you up through La Pigna ends at a Baroque façade flanked by side towers with copper-coated cupolas — the copper itself applied as recently as 1979, which tells you something about how steadily the place has been tended.
Inside, the oldest thing in Sanremo is quietly doing its job above the main altar: a Madonna and Child painted by Nicolò da Voltri in 1401, a surviving fragment of a larger altarpiece. Around it, Giacomo Antonio Boni's vault frescoes (1727) and Anton Maria Maragliano's carved wooden saints fill a space that rewards slow looking.
💛 What travellers fall for
People who come back tend to time it for late morning, when the light through the dome falls across the apse frescoes at a useful angle. The pebble-mosaic path on the way up is worth pausing over — black-and-white geometric patterns underfoot that most visitors walk across without registering. The written-prayer ledger near the entrance is quietly affecting.
The story behind Santuario della Madonna della Costa
The site's founding legend involves a sailor's vow after escaping pirates and a casket discovered on the hillside — the kind of story that probably contains a truth about how devotion actually takes root in a place. The first documented record is more prosaic: a 1474 chapel description tied to the Fabiani brothers, who endowed a daily Mass. The current structure dates to 1630, built in the Baroque style that was then reordering churches across Liguria.
The dome came more than a century later, designed by Domenico Belmonte of Oneglia between 1770 and 1775. Formal consecration waited until 1 November 1832, performed by Bishop Giovanni Battista D'Albertis. The sanctuary's relationship with the town runs deep: in 1361, citizens reportedly dragged chains up the hill to celebrate their liberation from Doria rule — a procession known as the Festa delle Catene. The votive procession held every fifteen years since 1835 commemorates the town's survival of cholera that same year.
Good to know
Walk up through La Pigna — the climb takes up to two hours at a relaxed pace, though the sanctuary is also car-accessible with parking. Open daily 09:00–18:30, free entry. If you're in Sanremo on 15 August, the Feast of the Assumption draws a procession worth seeing.
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What travellers say about Santuario della Madonna della Costa
At the top of the Pigna, this fantastic sanctuary dedicated to the Virgin is particularly important to the inhabitants of San Remo who could spot it when they were at sea. Erected to celebrate the liberation from Doria rule in 1361, the building today presents a structure that was remodeled in the Baroque period. Inside, it's the opportunity to admire a painting of the Virgin and Child by Nicolo da Voltri (15th century), considered miraculous.
Truly a sanctuary as you'll likely have the entire piazza and church to yourself. Excellent views, path on maps is accurate.
Lovely place. Inside was quiet and you could stay with your own thoughts if you want to. Sanctuary is quite high and from the squere opens up nice view to the sea and port.
Nice church and paintings. Very quiet place until the ringing of the bells.
Must visit in Sanremo! The view from the top is magnificent 👌
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