The sanctuary of Santa Maria di Capo Colonna is a sanctuary located near the archaeological area of Capo Colonna, on the promontory Lacinio, in Crotone. The building is located near the temple dedicated to Hera Lacinia, of which only one Doric column remains today. The present structure was erected by the Basilian monks of Salice Salentino probably between the 11th and 13th centuries and certainly before the year 500, when the church and the icon were described in the Book of Miracles, a manuscript that tells of an Ottoman attempt to destroy or steal the painting that took place in 1519. The church has undergone many changes over the centuries. In the eighteenth century it was transformed into a hermitage and in 1897 it assumed its present appearance due to the extension designed by Marquis Anselmo Berlingeri. The icon, probably Byzantine, dates back to the tenth or eleventh century. The painting, which is based on the iconography of Saint Luke, was donated to the sanctuary, according to tradition, by Saint Dionysius the Areopagite. The painting underwent several retouches. Once kept inside the church, the icon was later transferred to the Cathedral of Crotone, from where, on the occasion of the feast of the Madonna di Capocolonna, it is carried in procession to the sanctuary.
