The Via Francigena
Two thousand years on the road to Rome
Since the earliest centuries of Christianity, pilgrimage has been one of the most deeply felt forms of devotion. The tombs of saints, relics and sites of apparitions became destinations along routes that gradually developed, stage by stage, following the ancient Roman consular roads towards the three great pilgrimage destinations of Jerusalem, Santiago de Compostela and Rome.
From Baccano to Sorbo
In the Campagnano area, the Via Cassia and the posting station at Baccano — the site of the martyrdom of Bishop Alexander in the early third century — made this stretch an established stopping point for pilgrims from as early as the fourth century. Between the eighth and tenth centuries, the route began to shift towards a hilltop itinerary, leading to the development of the fortified settlements of Campagnano, Formello, Isola and Sorbo.
A Sanctuary along the route
The small castrum Sorbi, which lay abandoned between the tenth and fourteenth centuries, could not accommodate all the pilgrims passing through. However, after the Virgin Mary is said to have appeared among its ruins in 1402 and the Sanctuary was founded in the following century, the site became an increasingly important place of devotion. Even when inns and lodging houses began to appear along the “official” route of the Via Cassia between the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries, many pilgrims continued to make a detour to reach Sorbo.
A rediscovered route
The twentieth century was the most difficult period: the abandonment of the route led to the gradual deterioration of the Sanctuary, culminating in structural collapses in 1966. Renewed interest in pilgrimage, both as a devotional and cultural experience, subsequently brought the route back here. In 2010, the new Lazio section of the Via Francigena was redesigned to pass through Sorbo, and in 2016, during the Jubilee of Mercy, the Sanctuary was designated a Holy Door along the route.
Today, centuries after those first pilgrims stopped on their way to Baccano, the Via Francigena once again passes through Sorbo. Those travelling along it can still stop and rest in the same place that welcomed its first devotees six hundred years ago.