Barbana is a small island located at the northern end of the Grado Lagoon, near Trieste in north-east Italy. It is the site of the Santuario di Barbana, an ancient Marian sanctuary whose origins date back to 582 when Elia, Patriarch of Aquileia, built a church near the hut of a hermit called Barbano. The island, which can be easily reached by ferry from nearby Grado, is populated by a small community of Franciscan monks.
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The foundation of the sanctuary originates from an image of the Virgin Mary carried by the sea and found at the foot of an elm after a fierce storm. At that time the site was part of the mainland: the Grado Lagoon was formed in the between the fifth and seventh centuries.
From the foundation to around 1000, Barbana became an island and the sanctuary was served by the Barnabites. The original church was destroyed by floods and rebuilt. The image of Mary, too, was lost and in the eleventh century was replaced by a wooden statue known as the Madonna mora. This Black Madonna is now housed in the Domus Mariae, a chapel near the main church.
From 11th to the 15th century the sanctuary was served by Benedectine monks. They were followed by a Franciscan community who built a new church in the 18th century.
The modern church was built in the Romanesque style at the beginning of the twentieth century. Ancient remains include two Roman columns from the first church, and a tenth-century relief portraying Jesus. The crowned statue of Mary dates from the fifteenth century, while the seventeenth century is represented by several altars and paintings, including one from the school of Tintoretto.
In the wood near the church a small chapel (the Cappella dell'apparizione) was built in 1854 in the place where the original image of Mary was found.
Barbana is the destination of many pilgrimages, the most famous being the Perdon de Barbana which is held each July to celebrate the end of a visitation of the plague in Grado in 1237.