The Black Madonna of Tindari 

May 11, 2023

It’s the fourth day of our immersive language school in Milazzo and we have been looking forward to our first school field trip.  Ten students piled into two cars driven by our teachers after lunch for a beautiful 45 minute drive along the coast to the top of a prominent hill overlooking the Tyrrhenian Sea.  At the top of the hill sits the small town of Tindari, location of the famous Black Madonna and the adjacent Archaeological Area of Tindari with the remains of the Ancient Greek city of Tyndaris. For those of you who like history I’ve summarized what we learned during the afternoon we spent exploring.  Don’t expect this to be historically precise because everything was in Italian so I’m doing my best to relate what I understood.

The Black Madonna statue dates to about 800 A.D. and was made of cedar wood native to some parts of the Middle East. It starts out light in color but darkens over time.  The color transformation suggested that she was not just another Madonna but something rare, the product of a miracle, and so it became a pilgrimage site in medieval times. There are naturally variations of the legend how the statue arrived in Tindari but it more or less goes like this.  Sailors were transporting it to Italy from the Byzantine empire to save it from destruction during the iconoclastic controversy when their ship was grounded by a storm in the bay below Tindari.  The ship had to offload the cargo, including the Madonna which was stored in a crate, in order to move the ship and continue on their journey. The local fishermen found it in a beach cave and hauled it up to the tiny church at the top of the cliff.  

After touring the sanctuary we walked to the archaeological area to explore the ruins of the Ancient Greek city of Tyndaris.  Founded around 396 B.C. the city was an important strategic location overlooking the Tyrrhenian Sea and was mentioned in multiple accounts of the ancient wars. Ruled by Greece, the Carthaginians and falling to Rome around 254 B.C. and eventually completely destroyed by Muslim invaders in the 9th century.  What remains gives a glimpse into a once powerful, vibrant city with a Roman amphitheater and beautiful mosaic tile floors.