La Crusc Pilgrimage Church

Below the mighty rock face of Mt. Sasso di Santa Croce, high above San Leonardo in Badia in the Fanes-Senes-Braies Nature Park, a glamorous chapel can be found. It was built in 1484 by Count Volkhold of San Lorenzo di Sebato and consecrated to the Holy Cross in the same year by Bishop Konrad of Bressanone. The La Crusc Pilgrimage Church, as it is called in Ladin - "Heilig Kreuz-Kirche" in German, "Santuario di Santa Croce" in Italian -, became the destination of many pilgrims over time and was therefore extended around 1650 in Rococo style, with frescoes and a statue of Jesus and equipped with a bell tower. The altar contains numerous relics, such as those of the Saints Leonard, Hippolytus, Vergilius (Bishop of Salzburg), Mary Magdalene, Agnes and Barbara.

In 1718, the adjacent Holy Cross Hospice was added, which today together with the chapel makes up the delightful ensemble. It served as an accommodation for the pilgrims and as a dwelling place for the sacristan. Today the listed building houses a refuge that invites hikers to a South Tyrolean Kaiserschmarrn and other delicacies. The pilgrimage church is still in use, for example at the beginning of June the statue of the Christ Carrying the Cross is carried up from the San Leonardo Parish Church to La Crusc in a procession, and back again at the beginning of October.

Today the little church is a popular hiking destination both in summer and in winter. It was also included by the diocese of Bolzano-Bressanone in the list of 13 South Tyrolean pilgrimage churches in which remission of sins can be requested. And how to reach it? A hike takes you from San Leonardo in Badia to Oies, the birthplace of Saint Giuseppe Freinademetz, and on to the church. A Way of the Cross leads from La Valle in the Val Badia valley to the pilgrimage church. Or you use the La Crusc 1 and the La Crusc 2 Cable Cars which take you up to 2,050 m a.s.l.