A church carved into the tufa on the beach of Pizzo
On the beach just north of Pizzo, at the foot of a tufa cliff a few steps from the sea, lies one of the most surprising and moving places in Calabria: the Chiesetta di Piedigrotta, a small church entirely carved into the rock, with altars, columns and dozens of statues sculpted directly in the soft tufa. According to tradition, its origin dates back to the seventeenth century, when a sailing ship from Naples was caught in a violent storm off this coast; the sailors prayed before a painting of the Madonna di Piedigrotta, which they had on board, and vowed that, if they survived, they would build a chapel in her honour. The ship sank but the crew reached the shore safely, and with them the painting, and the sailors carved a small chapel in the rock to house it.
In the late nineteenth century, a local craftsman, Angelo Barone, and later his son, began to enlarge the grotto and fill it with sculptures, transforming it into a real underground church with several chambers, with scenes from the Gospels, saints, the Nativity, the Last Supper and other religious figures, all carved in the rock with a naive and touching style. After years of abandonment and damage caused by humidity and the sea, the church was restored in the 1960s by a descendant of the family, who also added new statues, and more recently it has been the subject of further restoration work. The atmosphere inside, with the light filtering from the openings and the sound of the waves, is unique.
Tip: the church is open to visitors with a small entrance fee; combine it with a walk in Pizzo and a tartufo ice cream.
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