Facade preceded by a small portico, on either side of the entrance door two windows allow the statue of the Madonna to be seen from the outside; the plan is in the shape of a Latin cross, the interior is a single nave above the main altar, in a niche is placed the statue of the Madonna dei Rimedi, in the arms of the transept we find two altars one dedicated to St. Francis and the other to St. Joseph. The entire complex is built of bricks. Description: Wooden statue of the Virgin with the arm of the blessing Child, dressed in embroidered garments, it is very difficult to determine the date of creation of the work, perhaps the 14th century. Entered into use: in the year 1521 Image: Statue
Type of ex-votos: Jewelry objects, Anthropomorphic figurines, Real or represented prostheses, Other Current preservation: During the restoration works of the church, which took place in 1683, the oldest ex-votos, due to their material (mostly made of papier-mâché and wax), were damaged and therefore destroyed.
Miracles there is a collection of miracles and a tradition published in, G. Migliorati Tribute of reflections for the graces of the SS. Virgin of Remedies of the Land of Pietralunga Perugia 1688.
According to the local scholar Antonio Alpini, in the place where, in Roman times, stood the necropolis of the Forum Julii Concupiensum (ancient Pietralunga), a church dedicated to the Madonna was erected in very remote times: Maria Flos Virginum also called the external parish to distinguish it from the other parish, also dedicated to the Virgin, which is located inside the castle. Originally this place was of modest proportions and in the apse was placed the statue of Mary with the child in her arms, the same that is still venerated today. Tradition has it that in the thirteenth century St. Francis stayed there, passing through to Gubbio and La Verna (Cf. T. Santini, History of St. Francis of Assisi, Rome 1988). But the sanctuary cult developed in 1521 when the Virgin appeared to a group of Benedictine nuns and some girls who were going to visit the sacred image. Following this miraculous event, the old parish was enlarged and embellished, together with the monastery of the Benedictines which was in very poor condition (A. Alpini, Città di Castello, 2000, pp.618-620). In 1683 the bishop of Città di Castello, Giuseppe Sebastiani, assigned the church the title of Our Lady of Remedies, this name, according to the bishop, was to commemorate the victory, attributed to the intercession of the Virgin, of the Christian troops over the Turkish ones who in 1683 had besieged the city of Vienna. The same year the works of enlargement and radical architectural transformation of the sanctuary began, which corresponds to the current one. From the memoirs of the archpriest Giuseppe Migliorati, published in Perugia in 1688, it appears that in those years the influx of pilgrims was considerable and many were the prodigious events, graces and miracles performed by the Virgin (A. Alpini, Città di Castello, 2000, pp.727-742). The influx of pilgrims and the cult continued in the following centuries. Today, although with less intensity, the cult still exists.
The legend is published in: G. Migliorati Tribute of reflections for the graces of the SS. Virgin of Remedies of the Land of Pietralunga Perugia 1688, pp. 26-28. Until the last century [the last century is the sixteenth century as Migliorati was writing in the seventeenth century] there was in Pietralunga a Monastery of Nuns of the Order of St. Benedict. Those good Mothers lived with total observance, but without the rigors of the Cloister, while they were allowed to go out on certain days to go to one or the other Parish. Often they went to the Blessed Virgin of Remedies in the company of many girls with such devotion that on the way they remained silent with exact silence perhaps meditating on the incomparable purity of the Mother of Virgins […] when they arrived not quite halfway appeared dressed in snow, and scattered with light the Queen of Virgins. They stopped astonished, surprised by the wonder […]. With a majestic and jovial face, just like the Image they were going to pay homage to, she showed her appreciation for their piety, raising her hand she blessed them and disappeared.
Via della Pieve, 2, 06026 Pietralunga PG, Italy
