Cappella della Madonna di Vitaleta photo spot

Despite its limited size and position lost in the fields of the Val d’Orcia, this little Chapel, nestled between two rows of cypress trees, has become an important feature of the best-known landscapes in the world. It rises in Vitaleta, near San Quirico d’Orcia, and was built on the extension site of an older tabernacle. For many years it was used as a place of worship to the simulacrum of the Virgin of the Consolation until, in 1553, it became home to a famous statue of the Virgin ascribable to Andrea della Robbia. The statue, today preserved in the Chiesa della Madonna di Vitaleta in the centre of San Quirico d’Orcia, has a rather interesting history: it is in fact said that it was the Virgin Mary herself who, appearing to a shepherdess, suggested that the faithful should go to a shop in Florence where they would find the statue that would then be placed in the church in Vitaleta.