The sanctuary of Santa Maria del Sorbo is located in the picturesque Sorbo Valley and has long been disputed between Formello and Campagnano di Roma.
It was built on the site where once there was a castle founded around 996 following the Saracen invasions of the 10th century.
It was the period in which the inhabitants took refuge in fortified centers in which there was always a chapel which, in Campagnano di Roma was dedicated to the Madonna. In the Middle Ages it was owned by the Monastery of San Paolo and later by the Orsini Family.
In 1427 a church was built next to the abandoned castle in honor of the Virgin represented by an icon of a Virgin and Child on the altar, an icon that the Orsini family donated to the Carmelitano Order.
A legend tells another story about the construction of this sanctuary and the icon that would hide a miracle.
It is said that a boy with a broken arm went to graze the pigs in the Sorbo Valley and noticed that every day he observed a sow moving away and returning after a few hours. One day he followed her and found her settling under a tree almost in the form of a prayer.
Looking through the branches of the tree, he saw an icon of the Madonna and Child.
The image spoke to him and told him to go and inform the inhabitants of Formello and build a shrine there.
To make herself believe, Our Lady performed the miracle of healing the young man and making him return to normal.
The inhabitants of Formello did not believe him, while those of Campagnano di Roma followed him and built the current sanctuary with a convent that immediately became a destination for pilgrimages.
Today the sanctuary has a church with a bell tower and a part of the original convent, while other ruins are next to it.
The church has a simple facade, which highlights the internal division into three naves, and the bell tower is immediately next to the entrance.
The interior is simple with white walls, aisles separated by a series of arches, just highlighted by peperino, and a trussed wooden roof.
On the bottom apse there is a series of 15th century frescoes that represent the Virgin in the center and two rows of saints that pay homage to them.
In addition to the icon of the Madonna with Child, in the church there is a particular wooden crucifix of a Christ that mingles with a tree.
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