The Sanctuary of Santa Rosalia is a church and pilgrimage site located on via Bonnaojust outside of the urban neighborhoods of Palermo, nestled against a stone cliff wall on Mount Pellegrino, which looms to the north of the Sicily city.

[1] Located high on the mountain, upon arrival to the locale, one ascends from a herd of souvenir stands to the sanctuary proper by an arduous staircase of over 70 steps.

The left structure has a frieze reading Pio Refugio Orfanelli Santa Rosalia/ Opera Don Orione, recalling the presence of a former orphanage for girls at the site.

Goethe visited the site in 1787, describing the sacred spot as one that better befits the humility of the saint than the sumptuous festivities that are celebrated to commemorate her retirement from the world.

[7] A poetical illustration by Letitia Elizabeth Landon to an engraving of a painting of the grotto by Robert Brandard was published posthumously in Fisher's Drawing Room Scrap Book, 1840.