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Montenero and its famous Santuario
are found just barely south of Livorno.
Montenero gets its name from a dark past when the hillside
was seen as a sinister and damned place.
Another story also tells of an apparition by a pastor in
the 14th century. He claimed to have seen an apparition of
the Madonna. (Today one can still visit the splendid chapel
that glorifies this very apparition.
After that miraculous episode, the inhabitants of the area
built the Santuario in Montenero in honor of the Holy Virgin.
After centuries of changes, like that of the bell tower addition
in 1820, we arrive to its present
day aspect. Apart from its worshippers, the Santuario is also
visited for its many works of art like the marble altar, the
Crucifixion and its beautiful ceiling of gold finished in
1600.
The marvelous panorama from the Santuario opens into a typical
Tuscan valley that slopes gently to the sea. In remote times
the Montenero hills were a useful and natural reference point
for sailors, who often had their lives saved by the sight
of them.
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