Church of Santa Maria di Polsi - a church located in the heart of the Aspromonte massif near the village of San Luca in the Italian region of Calabria. It was founded in 1144, the year the Norman King Roger II of Sicily. Church and convent are in the picturesque village at the bottom of the gorge surrounded by high mountains. In the west, seen mountain Montalto (1955 meters) - the highest peak of the Aspromonte. This arrangement of the temple makes it very hard to reach, a few years ago to Polsi can be reached only on foot.

Santa Maria di Polsi - a Basilian monastery, one of the last surviving in the Calabria. The church has three naves, the central dome stands the classic honeycomb, which is decorated with sheets of pure gold. The arches, resting on strong pillars, decorated with splendid stucco work of local artists. And the pictures on the walls around depict scenes from the life of the Virgin Mary. Ancient statue of the Madonna was carved out of tufa Sicilian painter in the 16th century. Another statue of the Madonna kept in the niche of white marble. Every fifty years in the church there is an important event - the coronation of the statue of the Madonna. The first time the coronation was held in 1860 to celebrate the 300th anniversary of the arrival of the statue in the temple.

In general, however, the origins of this cult thing of the distant past. In the nearby town of Locri, a former ancient Greek colony, archaeologists have discovered a number of artifacts made even in Pre-Roman era, and evidence of the existence of these places of worship of the female, probably dedicated to Persephone. In the 7th century monks founded a monastery baziliane in which Madonna praised the Greek canons until the end of the 15th century they were not expelled. Nevertheless, even today pilgrims from all over Calabria and eastern Sicily Polsi arrive to pay homage to the Virgin Mary - the number during the celebration reaches 50 thousand people!

Interestingly, in the early 20th century in the church of Santa Maria di Polsi holds its annual meeting of members of the Calabrian mafia - ndrangetty. In 1969 a meeting was raided by the police, who arrested about 70 members of the Mafia. In recent years, the number of pilgrims to the temple declined slightly due erupted in 2007, the conflict between two mafia clans of San Luca.