Attractions and Places To See around Santa Maria Maggiore - Top 20

Saint Francis of Assisi, whose 800th anniversary of death we celebrate this year, describes our Christian life with the words of the Apostle Peter: he reminds us that we are called to »follow in the footsteps of Christ, who called his betrayer friend and voluntarily handed himself over to his crucifiers« (cf. NbR XXII, 2; cf. 1 Pt 2:21). The Poverello encourages us to fix our gaze on Jesus: »Let us all, brothers, pay attention to the Good Shepherd, who, to save his sheep, suffered the torment of the cross« (Erm VI). Therefore, on this Way of the Cross, let us accept Saint Francis' invitation to follow in Jesus' footsteps, not just ritually or intellectually, but with our whole being and our whole life: »Offer yourselves in body and carry his holy cross and follow his most holy commandments to the end« (Off XV 13). (from the introduction to the Way of the Cross meditation with the Holy Father, Pope Leo XIV, in the Roman Colosseum on April 3, 2026)

You can stay and order something.

nice refuge, a stop is a must

From a Celtic and Roman sanctuary to the Matarella fortress and a Capuchin monastery, this spiritual place tells an amazing story.

In 1656, two Capuchins chose the hill of Colle Mattarella, above Domodosso, to make it a place of pilgrimage. Twelve chapels were built, each with a statue or fresco depicting the Stations of the Cross, with an additional chapel depicting the Resurrection of Christ. At the top of Colle Mattarella stands the octagonal Sanctuary of the Holy Cross, the construction of which began in 1657. In the park of the Sacro Monte di Domodossola are the remains of the Mattarella Castle, destroyed in 1415 by Swiss soldiers who wanted to conquer the Ossola Valley and take it from the Duchy of Milan. In 1656, two Capuchins from the Domodossola monastery, Father Gioacchino from Cassano and Father Andrea from Rho, decided to have Stations of the Cross built on the slopes of Colle Mattarella, leading to a church dedicated to the Holy Cross. It was planned to gradually replace the crosses with chapels for the individual Stations of the Cross. Bishop Guido Maria Odescalchi commissioned the legal scholar Giovanni Matteo Capis to coordinate the project and named the hill Monte Calvario ("Calvary"), as the places of worship of the Sacri Monti ("holy mountains") were intended to symbolize the sites in the Holy Land that many pilgrims could not or could no longer reach. The construction work and the technical implementation were entrusted to the architect Tomaso Lazzaro from the Val d'Intelvi. The foundation stone for the pilgrimage site was laid on July 8, 1657, and in March 1662 the first Holy Mass was celebrated at the altar on which a crucifix by Dionigi Bussola had just been erected. A great benefactor and financier of the project was Kaspar Stockalper, a merchant, notary and governor from the Valais who was forced into exile in Domodossola, directly on Monte Calvario, where his figure embodies St. Gaspar, one of the Three Kings, in the 15th chapel of the Sacro Monte. The project to build the chapels was completed in the course of the 18th century; their furnishings have been constantly restored or renewed since then; the most recent statues, from 1957, are carved in wood. Source and further information: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sacro_Monte_di_Domodossola

There is a feeling of abrupt detachment when we enter what seems to be the mysterious door to the very heart of the mountain: almost suddenly we pass from a gentle, sunny and verdant landscape to a space of shadow where rare rays of sun struggle to penetrate, grazing the walls like blades of light, we pass from the heat to the cool-humid where only mosses and lichens manage to thrive and develop. We walk easily on the flat and dry bottom, created by the deposits of the streams, large irregularly rounded cavities alternate with narrow passages and above our heads dizzying walls seem at times to almost join together leaving only narrow openings towards the sky. Some metal ladders make the climb easier.

In Maiesso (535 m) you can admire, along the course of the Toce river, the so-called 'giants' potholes': the rocky banks hit by the swirling subglacial current, have been sculpted as if they were soft clay, giving rise to semicircular, sinuous, smooth and enveloping shapes, splendid inlets where the current relaxes and the torrent widens into sparkling pools of water that invite you to take a dive and a 'vivifying' immersion. Here you can also observe the "zero unit", the oldest formation in our Alps that emerges only here in the Antigorio valley.

Only experts and those who do not suffer from vertigo