4 km. 666 arcades. These are the figures to put into account if you choose to visit the Sanctuary of the Madonna di San Luca. These are the figures covered by thousands of pilgrims from the twelfth century, reached the summit of the Colle della Guardia to venerate the holy icon of the Virgin and Child.

The Sanctuary is linked to its history of the icon of the Virgin kept inside that gave rise to the legend of its foundation. A pilgrim-hermit from Greece (to which successive false legends attribute the name Teocle Kmnya) was received by the priests of the basilica of Santa Sofia in Constantinople, a painting attributed to Luke the Evangelist to take him to the mountain of the Guard, as the same inscription on the painting reported. After various adventures the pilgrims arrived in Bologna and the board of the Madonna and child was carried in procession to the mountain.

However the creation of this sanctuary has different roots: it seems that is the will of Angela Bonfantini that, in a document dated 1192, states wanting to give life as a hermit on Mount Guardia, with the proposed idea to build a church.

In 1193 Pope Celestine III gave permission to build the Church, then, went to meet through a troubled period after the death of Bonfantini, first under the management of the Augustinian nuns and then under that of the Dominican nuns who were affiliated to Augustine put in place and the subjugation of the Monastery of St. Matthias Church (which is still in the nearby Via Sant'Isaia 18). All these political instability left the Church long in decline: it was only after the miracle of rain on July 5, 1433 that the shrine once again became a destination for pilgrims. On that date, the icon of the Madonna and child was brought to the city by a procession to make sure that the rain, which was destroying all the crops would end. The rain soon stopped and then the sanctuary enjoyed a new period of flourishing.

The Sanctuary, as we know it dates from the eighteenth century and in 1874 was declared a National Monument. The exterior of the elliptical is baroque in the middle and is topped by a large dome with a lantern, while the arcade (leading from the center of the town reaches the Sanctuary) was built between the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries to repair the pilgrims by rain (in the construction of the porch also participated many citizens of Bologna). Along the unwinding of the 666 arcades are 15 small chapels sought by the vicarious Olimpia Boccaferri to contain the images with the Mysteries of the Rosary, which the pilgrims used to hang from trees along the route.

666, for many, is not a random number: according to some theories born in the years, it allude to the devil, as if to indicate that the path of the arcades in fact symbolizes the serpent of Genesis (the Devil) for both its form and because - ending at the foot of the sanctuary - reminiscent of the traditional iconography of the Devil defeated and crushed by the Madonna in his heel (Genesis, 3, 15).

The tour to the Sanctuary accompanies the traveler with a charm that makes him breathe fully the medieval atmosphere that permeates the whole city of Bologna. At night all the way to arcade is illuminated and visible from all over the city. And if you're a weary traveler and short of breath, you can always decide to go up on the hillby car: you lose the charm of the trail but the view from the Sanctuary takes your breath anyway!