At the crossing point of Via Vico road, you can see one of the numerous painted images of the “Madonna del Pilone” (“Madonna of the Wayside Shrine”) or “Regina Montis Regalis” (“Patron Saint of Mondovì”) on a wall. These images are the expression of a secular attachment and a very strong devotion in Mondovì. The Santuario di Vicoforte is dedicated to this “Regina Montis Regalis” (“Patron Saint of Mondovì”). The original image was painted at the beginning of the 16^th century on a small pillar in the nearby town of Vicoforte as a kiln owner’s vow for a good production of bricks. It is said that a hunter once hit the pillar and that blood came out of the painted image of the Madonna. And thus, devotions and first pilgrimages began, and increased in 1594 when a plague epidemic broke out. The bishop wanted a pilgrimage church to keep the influx of pilgrims under control. And so, in 1595, Carlo Emanuele I of Savoy, with architect Ascanio Vitozzi, began its construction. Works slowed down during the first Salt War but then resumed at the end of the war in 1682. It was for this occasion that the pillar was again named “Regina Montis Regalis” (Patron Saint of Mondovì) in 1782. If you follow Via Vico road you will end up in the small town of Vicoforte, where the cult of the Virgin began.