The La Crusc/Santa Croce Sanctuary

Many centuries ago, when Alta Badia was still largely uninhabited, La Crusc (Holy Cross) seems to have been a pagan place of worship. It was probably the unfavourable living conditions of the area that led the first Christians to construct a sanctuary here.

Around 1010 the monks built a chapel at La Crusc where a small church was erected in the 15th century. At the end of the 17th century the church was deconsecrated by the then Austrian Emperor and was subsequently left to decay. Pilgrims and valley dwellers rescued the little church by partially rebuilding it, and some years later in the middle of the 18th century it was enlarged and embellished with a bell tower.

For a long time the existence of La Crusc as a place of pilgrimage had been established on the basis of documents from the year 1511. And then two further parchment documents emerged with evidence pointing to an earlier existence. The first mentioned a church consecration; the second contained the story of “Morellus de Caninis” who made a pilgrimage to Rome in 1500 in order to seek favours for the La Crusc church.

Numerous relics are preserved in the altar of the church, such as those of St Leonhard (to whom the parish church of San Leonardo/Badia is dedicated), St Hippolitus, St Virgilius (Bishop of Salzburg), St Mary Magdalena, St Agnes and St Barbara.

Nowadays there are several processions to the church during the summer season, and there is an important service on the first Sunday in June.