The history of the Girolimini Path
The mule track that leads to the top of Mount Summano is said to have existed since ancient times, born as a pilgrimage road. The name "Sentiero dei Girolimini" has its roots, however, around 1452, the year in which the small monastery on the Summano was entrusted to the friars of San Girolamo (called Girolimini). The religious enlarged and embellished the sanctuary and settled in the village of Piovene Rocchette, where they built a convent and a hospice for pilgrims heading to the top of Mount Summano.
In the following centuries, the Piovene convent, the hermitage and the sanctuary enjoyed considerable fame throughout the Veneto and were a continuous destination for pilgrimages of the faithful for the graces and miracles dispensed by the Madonna. However, a decree of 1777 from the Senate of the Venetian Republic ordered the suppression of many religious orders and convents, including that of Piovene and the Sanctuary of Summano fell into decline. The reconstruction of the wreck was only possible in 1892, when the parish priest of Santorso, a municipality near Piovene Rocchette, had the initiative, thanks to funding from senator Alessandro Rossi. The Girolimini friars were recalled and settled in a villa in Santorso, until the suppression of the order which occurred in 1933. Ten years earlier, in 1923, the Catholic Action, on the proposal of Monsignor Ferdinando Rodolfi, erected a concrete cross of 16 meters as a warning of the Great War. However, this was seriously damaged by lightning and was therefore equipped with a lightning rod, while the image of Christ was built by the sculptor from Marano Vicentino, Giorgio Sperotto, in 1993 and added on the occasion of the ten-year climb to Mount Summano by Monsignor Pietro Nonis.