Traditional religious cult object linked to the devotion of the image of the Blessed Virgin of St. Luca as well as a comforting visual landing for the Bolognese who come back to the city, the sanctuary located on the Colle della Guardia is one of the symbols of Bologna.
The over 600 arches of the portico connect the sanctuary to the city and facilitate the procession that every year since 1433 leads the Byzantine Madonna with Child to the cathedral during the week of the Ascension. The terminal part of the hill route, designed by the latter, is characterized instead by the dynamic variation of views and vanishing points up to the final vision of the sanctuary.
The start of the uphill path is emphasized along via Saragozza from the Arco del Meloncello.
The current church was built by the Dotti between 1723 and 1757 to replace a previous fifteenth century church while the two external tribunes were concluded by his son Giovanni Giacomo in 1774. In keeping with the Bolognese tradition, the external volume is devoid of emphatic and solemn decorations. is characterized by the simplicity of the curvilinear profile on which the dome is set. Inside an elliptical planimetry the internal spaces are dilated to a Greek cross culminating in the main altar that precedes the chapel of the Virgin.