Santuario Madonnina Del Boschetto

Don Giacomo always has a comforting word for everyone.

Small church, quite busy. in September there is a week of celebration.

Catholic place of worship recently renovated. They do masses with speaker and skewer parties in September.

Small but very beautiful sanctuary (in these days the party takes place with castronomic clothes excellent food).

The church is very beautiful dedicated to the Madonna "del boschetto" the party is on 8 September.

Cute sanctuary, equipped with a large parking lot. Following the railing that borders the sanctuary area, you can begin the walk on the path of the fountains

It is located in the hamlet of Onzato, in a large, well-kept green space with beautifully flowered flower beds in this spring season. The historical and fideistic value of the place lies in the fact that it was considered sacred since the dawn of time. In fact, what we see today is the eighteenth-century sanctuary, but an altar from the Celto-Roman era was found. It was sacred first for the Celts (from the 4th century BC), then for the Romans (from the 1st century BC) and finally for the Christians (from the 4th century), who erected an early Christian church there. Later it underwent various adaptations up to the Lombard baroque forms between 1730-1737 by the Como architect Antonio Corbellini di Pellio Superiore, in Valle d'Intelvi, the same who designed the parish church of Saints Siro and Lucia di Castel Mella. Externally it has a blue and white tint (blue is the color of the district), in this period in the churchyard there is a tent for outdoor functions (which partially hides the facade). The interior is elegant. To admire several works: a valuable eighteenth-century altarpiece and the tabernacle of the main altar, covered in gilded bronze by the sculptor Federico Severino from Brescia; certainly worth seeing is the sixteenth-century fresco with the "Nativity of Jesus", attributed to an artist gravitating in the orbit of the Brescian School of the sixteenth century (the names of Romanino, 1484-1566 or of Moretto, 1498-1554 have been mentioned). Noteworthy is the altar of the Apostles Peter and Paul, because it preserves a sixteenth-century altarpiece with a "Sacred Conversation of the Apostles Peter and Paul with the Madonna and Child". This canvas comes from the early Christian church of SS. Pietro e Paolo, built in the early centuries of the Common Era in the village of Onzato, and closed for worship in 1929. The nature trail "dei Fontanili" begins right outside the church. Ample free parking for cars.

DESCRIPTION The sanctuary was built in an area where there were resurgences and groves of alders, revered by the Celts, who settled here in the fourth century BC [1] In the first century a. C., with the arrival of the Romans, the Celtic divinities were assimilated to Juno, as protector of women in childbirth and the unborn life, to whom a temple was erected. In Onzato, votive altars dedicated to Jupiter and Minerva were found [2]. The birth of the Christian sanctuary Between the 4th and 5th centuries, Christianity spread to Onzato, where two important places of worship were built: in the countryside, the Roman temple was transformed into the church of the Madonnina del boschetto; in the village, inside a rustic Roman villa, the early Christian church was born, dedicated to the apostles Peter and Paul. [3] The priory of the eremitani friars In the Middle Ages, the priory of the hermits of Sant'Agostino developed next to the country church of the Madonnina del Boschetto, dependent on the mother house, the city convent of San Barnaba, which guarded the sanctuary and took care of the pilgrims [4]. The disputes over the use of resurgent waters The Benedictine nuns of the monastery of Santi Cosma and Damiano, of Brescia, who had extensive land holdings in Onzato, often quarreled over the use of the copious waters that gushed from the springs and fountains around the Madonnina del Boschetto. [5]. The apostolic visit of St. Charles The apostolic visit of St. Charles on 3 August 1580 attests that the Madonnina del boschetto was located outside the "Terra di Onzato", was built in alternate layers of bricks and pebbles, had a single altar and a single bell, and was only celebrated there in the days dedicated to the Madonna [6]. The new church In the years 1730-1738 the parish of San Siro had a new church built with three altars, a new sacristy and a new hermitage [7]. Of the ancient church, only the sixteenth-century fresco of the Nativity of Jesus remained. The architect entrusted with the reconstruction was probably the Como-born Antonio Corbellini, from Pellio Superiore, Valle d'Intelvi (died 1748): it is the same architect to whom we owe the parish church of Saints Siro and Lucia. The style has the characteristic features of the Lombard baroque. The custody of the hermits During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the Madonnina del Boschetto was guarded and cared for with love by the hermits, who lived in the adjacent hermitage. The hermits were lay friars of the Augustinian third order. Two hermits reported in the parish archive papers: the hermit Giuseppe Bordogna da Nuvolento, who "died on 12 September 1742, after having lived for eighty years serving the Blessed Virgin of Onzato" and the hermit David (whose name indicates its probable Jewish origin) [8] that "in 1758 he handed over the keys of the sanctuary to the Captain of Justice of Brescia, who seized it for a dispute between the parish priest Giobatta Bacinetti and the Municipality of Onzato". [9 ] The great influx of pilgrims The pastoral visit of 15 November 1886 records that pilgrims flocked to the sanctuary in large numbers from the surrounding villages, especially in times of drought, pestilence and other public calamities [10]. In 1927, the early Christian parish church of Onzato, dedicated to the apostles Peter and Paul, was closed for worship and a sixteenth-century altarpiece that was placed there was transferred to the altar of the apostles of the same name at the sanctuary [11]. The sanctuary is spared from the flood On November 4, 1966, the Mella submerged Castel Mella under two meters of water and mud. The religious functions of the community were moved from the parish church, which was unusable, to the sanctuary of the Madonnina del Boschetto, spared from the fury of the flood. Another beautiful day around Sanctuaries ... Thank God??? ⛪