The origin of the Sanctuary is linked to a popular legend, according to which the Madonna appeared to two shepherd children who were on the mountain. Shortly after the apparition, the two found a sacred image hanging from a beech tree, and brought it down to the village to worship it. The next day the image had disappeared from the village: they found it again hanging from the beech tree where it had been seen the day before. In that place the Sanctuary was erected.
The first historical document concerning the little church dates back to 1205: some notarial acts, in which the church is named "Santa Maria della Cella in Monteboaggine", and is indicated as entrusted to the Benedictine monks of the Monastery of Piandimeleto, then Santa Maria in Mutino. Over the years the church was the object of great pilgrimages, and was restored several times with additions (the last was the porch that joins the church to the rooms for hermitage, dating back to 1950).
Near the Sanctuary there is a refuge-restaurant and the departure station for the chairlift to the summit of Carpegna.
