Ghisiola (church-hermitage of St Maria delle Rose)

This small hermitage on the morainal hills, in Ghisiola, is a place of silence and prayer. If you wish to visit it and to stay in the guest room, you need to contact the monk who lives there. Today's altar and presbytery were built in mid XV century, possibly over previous ones. The name “Ghisiola” (chiesuola, small church) came from this small building.
The hermitage has very simple lines in keeping with the surrounding hills. As the local rural houses, they built it using only morainal materials. Inside the church, a late Gothic altar piece depicting Our Lady with the Child stands.
It was here that St. Aloysius Gonzaga's mother, Marta Tana, was used to pray to heal him when he was two. After he was healed, she went on pilgrimage to the small church offering as an ex-voto a painting depicting the little Aloysius holding a rose in his hands, According to the documents, the hermitage was used in several different ways during centuries. Since 2007, Castiglione parish church gave it in charge to a solitary monk supported by Bose monastic community