Beata Vergine di Lourdes Church

Hovering between devotion and beauty, the Church of Our Lady of Lourdes in Albinea stands on the hill of Bazzano as a place of peace and spirituality, nestled amidst the green hills of the Reggio Emilia area.
Its origins date back to the Middle Ages: the first building, commissioned by the Benedictines of San Prospero around the year 1000, was erected as a parish church serving the local communities, bearing witness to centuries of faith and history.

Over the centuries, the small church underwent changes, until, at the end of the 19th century, the provost Don Domenico Castellini and Count Gaetano Castellani Tarabini – a man of deep faith and a pilgrim to Lourdes – decided to breathe new life into it.
The project, entrusted to the engineer Carlo Barbieri of Modena, was conceived with a specific aim: to build a sanctuary inspired by the first basilica of Massabielle, where the Virgin Mary appeared to Bernadette.
The foundation stone was laid in 1896 and, three years later, in 1899, the church was consecrated, becoming the first in Italy dedicated to Our Lady of Lourdes.

The Gothic-Lombard style, the Carrara marble altar created by Professor Giuseppe Garibaldi, and the Marian statue brought directly from Lourdes make it a unique gem of architecture and devotion.
The church, with a single nave and four side chapels, features a gabled façade punctuated by pilasters and blind arches, and overlooks a landscape of extraordinary tranquillity, in perfect harmony with the surrounding nature.