Basilica di Santa Rita, Cascia

The Basilica di Santa Rita dominates the mountain town of Cascia, in the south-eastern uplands of Umbria, and is one of the most visited pilgrimage shrines in the country. Unlike the region's medieval churches, it is a large 20th-century building, consecrated in 1947, built to receive the growing flood of pilgrims drawn to Saint Rita of Cascia, the 15th-century widow and Augustinian nun venerated across the Catholic world as the patron saint of impossible and desperate causes. Its bold, somewhat austere exterior of pale stone gives way to a richly decorated interior, where the walls and ceilings are covered with 20th-century frescoes and mosaics in a neo-Byzantine manner, glowing with gold and deep colour. The focus of every visit is the chapel housing the glass-sided shrine that holds the incorrupt body of Saint Rita, before which pilgrims pray and leave petitions; an adjoining complex includes the monastery where she lived, the cell associated with her, and a museum. The atmosphere is devotional rather than touristic, and modest dress is expected. A visit usually takes forty-five minutes to an hour, longer for those who tour the monastery and museum or join a service. The basilica is busiest around Saint Rita's feast day on 22 May, when great crowds, processions and the blessing of roses fill the town, and at weekends; outside these times it is far quieter. Cascia sits high in the mountains near Norcia and the Sibillini, reached by car or bus along winding roads, and the drive and setting are part of the experience in this remote corner of Umbria.