Madonna dell’Acero, a charming place surrounded by immense forests of beech and fir trees, located at an altitude of 1200 meters above sea level.
The name of the place derives from an old print with the image of the Blessed Virgin dressed in Greek style, affixed to the trunk of a tree located in a clearing in the 14th century.
Legend has it that two deaf-mute children, while they were busy guarding their flock at pasture, were caught in a storm and found refuge under an enormous maple tree.
During the raging bad weather, the Madonna appeared and made them regain their hearing and speech. At home they reported that the Virgin wanted to be venerated in that place.
The parish priest of Rocca Corneta, informed of the apparition, thought of transporting the image to the parish and celebrating the event in the presence of the Bishop. But on the day scheduled for the celebrations the sacred image had disappeared. The Madonna, the locals say, had returned to the Maple, leaving signs of herself on all the tree trunks along the road.
It is also said that the marked trees could not be cut down: a man, who wanted to try to cut down one, located in his chestnut grove, was crushed under the branches of the tree.
A small chapel thus arose around the Maple that enclosed the tree stripped of all its branches.
The current suggestive sanctuary, built in a very simple style, like a group of small houses next to each other, dates back to the 16th and 17th centuries.