The Basilica of Pompei That Isn’t Pompeii: Why Pilgrims Come Here From Every Country on Earth

The Basilica of Pompei That Isn’t Pompeii: Why Four Million Pilgrims Come Here From Every Country

There are two Pompeis in Campania and they are separated by about two kilometres and by a vast difference in the kind of visitor they receive. Pompeii — with the double ‘i’, the archaeological site — receives approximately 3.5 million visitors per year, nearly all tourists. Pompei — with one ‘i’, the modern city adjacent to the ruins — receives approximately 4 million visitors per year, nearly all pilgrims. If you’ve heard of the first and not the second, you have something in common with the majority of international visitors to the Naples area.

What the Basilica Is

The Pontifical Shrine of the Blessed Virgin of the Rosary of Pompei is a basilica, a pilgrimage church, and one of the major Marian shrines in Italy. It draws pilgrims from across the Catholic world — from South America, the Philippines, Poland, Ireland, Africa — and its two annual pilgrimages in May and October attract hundreds of thousands of people over the course of a week.

The origins date to 1875, when a lawyer named Bartolo Longo brought a rolled-up painting of the Madonna of the Rosary to the poverty-stricken valley below Vesuvius. Longo — who had been a Satanist in his youth and converted dramatically to Catholicism — devoted his life to building a shrine around the painting, including charitable institutions, schools, and eventually the basilica consecrated in 1891 and subsequently expanded. He was beatified in 1980. The painting he brought still hangs above the main altar.

What You See at the Basilica

The building is large, ornate, and completely different in atmosphere from the archaeological site two kilometres away. Where Pompeii the ruins are silent and educational, the basilica is active, loud in the way that active pilgrimage sites are loud, and absolutely present in the lives of the people who come to it. In the nave during pilgrimages: organised groups from dozens of countries, each speaking their own language, each with their own specific devotional tradition, all in the same space simultaneously. Italian grandmothers with rosaries. Filipino families in Sunday clothes. South American church choirs rehearsing hymns that echo through the marble.

The Ex-Voto Collection

The ex-voto collection — hundreds of small metal plaques, silver objects, and tokens offered in thanks for favours received — covers entire walls in the side chapels. In aggregate it represents a catalogue of private human need across 150 years: illnesses survived, accidents averted, missing persons returned, children born safely. It is one of the most moving things I’ve encountered in a church in Campania, and I’ve encountered many.

Getting There

Pompei station on the Circumvesuviana line from Naples Napoli Centrale, direction Sorrento. Journey approximately 35 minutes. The basilica is a short walk from the station in the direction opposite from the archaeological site entrance. Open daily 6am to 8pm, free entry. Major pilgrimages are in May and October — expect very large crowds during these periods.