History has reserved for Tortona a past full of events and illustrious personalities but also a destiny of wars and destruction that risked erasing its memory... #tuttitaly
Tortona is a city in the province of Alessandria, located on the border with Lombardy. The border position made the city the object of raids and invasions that repeatedly saw it razed to the ground and then rebuilt.
Tortona is known for its food and wine products, including Baci di Dama and Baci Dorati, Tortona agnolotto, Tortona scented strawberries, Abbondio gazzosa, and Chinotto.
The reasons that lead to Tortona are also linked to culture, hiking, skiing, and mountaineering.
To visit the Sanctuary of Nostra Signora della Guardia, built by Don Luigi Orione in the place where, already in 1000, the Church of the Beata Vergine delle Grazie once stood.
The Sanctuary, raised in 1991 to the dignity of a Minor Basilica by Pope John Paul II, houses the tomb of San Luigi Orione, a destination for pilgrimages.
Behind the Sanctuary, at the top of the Tower, 60 m high, is the gilded bronze statue of the Madonna with baby Jesus in her arms, which, with its 14 m high and its 12 t weight, is the giant bronze statue in the world placed on top of a building.
The most typical feast of the Sanctuary is August 29, celebrated in memory of the Apparition of Mary on Mount Figogna to the shepherd Benedetto Pareto.
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