Have you ever heard of the ‘Madonna Nera’? The magnificent Sanctuary of Tindari in northern Sicily houses a particular depiction of the Virgin Mary: a Byzantine wooden statue originating from the East that portrays a black Madonna. The sanctuary stands in a spectacular position almost 300 meters high on a promontory with a panoramic view of the entire coast of Patti, a popular seaside resort near Messina, part of the vast area of the Nebrodi mountains.

The current building stands on the ruins of a pre-existing church destroyed by pirates; it was rebuilt in the 16th century in Baroque style and enlarged in the second part of the 20th century. Tindari is an evocative place whose origins seem to go back to the ancient Greek acropolis of Tyndaris, whose remains can be seen in the adjacent Archaeological Area of Tindari.