Sanctuary of Madonna del Terzito in Salina
The Sanctuary of the Madonna del Terzito di Salina , located in Valdichiesa, is the most important place of Marian worship of the Aeolian Islands .
It was built in 1630 on the ruins of a previous sanctuary whose history blends with legend. The Sanctuary was renovated in the second half of the nineteenth century.
According to popular tradition the Sanctuary is called del Terzito because it was rebuilt three times or, according to another hypothesis, because the term Terzito, which derives from the Spanish "tersillo" , indicated the triple sound of the bell that marked the devotions.
The Sanctuary has a Latin cross plan and is divided into three naves. Among the works kept inside it of particular value are: a wooden statue, by an unknown artist, representing the Madonna; an eighteenth-century canvas depicting the Virgin with a bell in her hand in the act of protecting the Aeolian Archipelago from above.
