SHARRYLAND
The Shrine of Santa Maria del Bosco
Inescapable stop for those who want to say they know Calabria and an ideal starting point for exploring the Serre
Where is
A place of solitary beauty
The shrine is located about two kilometers upstream from the Carthusian Monastery in a lonely little valley framed by tall, lush green fir trees. It is the place where Bruno of Cologne settled upon his arrival among the Serres and where he lived the last ten years of his life that ended on October 6, 1101. Near the hermitage a first church was erected by the saint to gather his monks in prayer. This was replaced after the 1783 earthquake by the present church of Santa Maria del Bosco, which shows a half-bust sculpture of the founder on its facade in the pediment.
From the church to the saint's dormitory
Walking down the granite staircase made in the 1950s by the stonemasons of Serra, one enters the interior of the church, of very simple lines, with some pieces of art from the ancient Carthusian Monastery, while on the high altar stands out a wooden, 19th-century statue of the Neapolitan school depicting Santa Maria del Bosco. In front of the church is a small temple that is referred to as the dormitory where the saint prayed and rested, and where he was buried in a pit dug into the rock. A marble statue made in the late 1700s by Serrese Stefano Pisani was placed in a cave: St. Bruno is depicted there with one arm resting on a skull in an attitude of repose.
The pastoral visit of Pope John Paul II
On the edge of the shrine is a small artificial lake fed by a spring that flows from a niche dated 1645. In the center of the small basin is a column topped by a cross. Also in the water is a statue of kneeling St. Bruno, a reminder of the way he used to do penance. More recent chronicles of the shrine include the Eucharistic celebration presided over by Pope John Paul II during his pilgrimage to the Charterhouse of Serra San Bruno in 1984. Every Pentecost Monday, however, a feast is celebrated at the shrine with transport of the statue and relics of the saint.
The magnificent Wood of Santa Maria
Behind the Dormitory begins a path that leads up to the 1110 meters of the Colle d'Arena crossing the historic Bosco di Santa Maria, a majestic forest of white firs (Abies alba) that in 1915 the English traveler Norman Douglas described in moving words in his book Old Calabria. An old-growth forest, with monumental specimens, inhabited by a fauna of yesteryear, which today enjoys the status of "special area of conservation" within the Serre Natural Park. To the hundreds of tree and shrub species that make up its flora is dedicated theexhibition area of Villa Bonitas, near the Sanctuary.
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