Art and CultureRural Church, Monastery and Convent, Sanctuary, Panni

Santuario e Convento della Madonna del Bosco di Panni

About 6 km from Panni, near a beautiful forest at the foot of Mount Crispignano, stands the Sanctuary of Maria S.S. Incoronata del Bosco, with the adjoining convent once officiated by the Hermits of St. Augustine.

The beautiful building houses the wooden statue of the Madonna that according to tradition was found by a shepherdess right in the woods between the branches of a large Cerro. Tradition has it that the Virgin invited the shepherdess to go to the village to reveal that she wanted a church to be built in that place in her honor. Thus the monastery of Panni of the Eremitano order of Sant'Agostino of the Dubritana Congregation of Puglia was founded and erected by Tommaso Caraffa, lord of Bovino in 1503. The hermitage consisted of 9 cells for the friars' home, refectory, kitchen, cellar, woodshed and stable.

Every year on June 24th there is a rural procession that brings the Statue of Our Lady of the Wood from the Sanctuary to the Mother Church of the village, where it remains until August 28th, when it is brought back to its usual place. On August 15 in his honor takes place the Feast of Ears.