The Marche, land of spirituality, have over time seen raise a number of Shrines, still the destination of constant pilgrimages. Among the best known and most visited, as well as the Holy House of Loreto and the Sanctuary of St. Nicholas of Tolentino, stands the one of Macereto, in the heart of Parco Nazionale dei Monti Sibillini, in Visso.

Tradition has it that on August 12th, 1359, when carrying a wooden statue of the Madonna and Child from Loreto to the Kingdom of Naples, the mules belonging to the caravan stopped kneeling on the site currently occupied by the sanctuary and from there they would not leave again.

In the province of Ancona, in Ostra is the Sanctuary of the Madonna della Rosa. Because of the miracles worked by Our Lady of the Rose and the consequent influx of pilgrims, the original and modest aedicule, built in 1666, was transformed into a church and then became, in the middle of the 18th Century, a majestic temple. The Sanctuary of the “Madonna delle Grazie” in Jesi developed instead from a primitive aedicule, where the image of the Virgin was painted, into a church in 1456, to thank Our Lady for having relieved the city from the plague.