Vintage Murder by Ngaio Marsh

Novelist draws on her love for New Zealand and the theatre

Vintage Murder begins as Roderick Alleyn
makes a train journey across New Zealand 

Ngaio Marsh transports her upper class, English sleuth, Roderick Alleyn, to her native New Zealand in Vintage Murder, her fifth novel to feature the Scotland Yard detective.

Alleyn is on holiday while recovering from an operation and the story begins as he makes a long journey by train across New Zealand. On the train, he encounters a travelling theatrical troupe and among them is Susan Max, a character actress he had met in Enter a Murderer, Ngaio’s second novel. The detective had encountered the actress while he was investigating a murder that occurred on stage during the performance of a play at a West End theatre.

He gets talking to different members of the troupe, which is run by Incorporated Playhouses, and it is not far into the story when Alfred Meyer, the owner of Incorporated Playhouses, who is married to the leading lady, Carolyn Dacres, reveals to Alleyn that someone has tried to push him off the train.

After the train has arrived at its destination, Carolyn invites Alleyn to see the first night of the play and to her birthday celebrations with the rest of the company on the stage afterwards. At the party, as a surprise for his wife, Meyer has arranged for a jeroboam of champagne to descend gently on to the dinner table from above, but something goes horribly wrong and the theatrical manager is killed.

The latest HarperCollins edition
of Ngaio Marsh's Vintage Murder

It soon becomes obvious that the mechanism set up for the stunt has been tampered with and Alleyn is invited by the local police to sit in on their investigation. He sets aside his holiday plans to try to help them catch the murderer.

Vintage Murder, which was published in 1937, enables Ngaio Marsh to describe the scenery of her homeland as seen through Alleyn’s eyes. He meets a Māori doctor, Rangi Te Pokiha, and buys a Māori fertility pendant, a ‘tiki’, which plays an important part in the plot.

Vintage Murder was one of four Alleyn novels adapted for New Zealand television in 1977, when the role of Alleyn was played by the actor George Baker.

Ngaio’s inspiration for the travelling theatrical troupe was the Alan Wilkie Company, which she was once a part of, so it is not surprising that the characters and their behaviour come across as so real in the story.

The story does consist of a long series of interviews conducted by Alleyn along with the New Zealand police officers, which many on line reviewers have complained about, but I still think it is a well written novel that presents a good mystery for the armchair detective to try to solve, and I would recommend it.

Vintage Murder is available from or

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Setting the Scene

Use your memories to help you write with assurance

Many crime writers believe the setting is one of the most important elements in a novel and that it almost becomes an additional character in the story.

The fishing village of Marina di Puolo gave me
the idea for my novel, The Shooting in Sorrento

Whether it is a country house in the case of Golden Age novels, a big city such as London or Edinburgh, or the island of Sicily, as in the novels of Andrea Camilleri, where the crime takes place has a big impact on the story and the investigation that follows.

A lot of writers become inspired by a particular place they have visited and their minds immediately start inventing a mystery to happen there.

When I interviewed the crime writer P D James in the 1990s she told me that her novels were almost always inspired by somewhere she had visited.

If you are a new writer you should try to set a story in a place you know well so that you can describe it convincingly and be accurate with the geography. Your murderer should be able to get from one place to another in a realistic amount of time, otherwise readers who also know the location will feel let down.

It is tempting to choose a glamorous setting for your book so that readers can become armchair travellers and enjoy visiting the sights along with your detective.

I was intrigued by the gated entrance to some
caves just outside Marina di Puolo

But many writers have picked abattoirs, factories, power stations and crime ridden inner city housing estates. As long as they have really known and understood their location, they have been able to use it effectively.

Wherever you decide to set your novel, you must visit it and get to know it well so that you can present it authentically.

There are exceptions, of course. I have read that H R F Keating wrote an entire series of books set in India, featuring his character, Inspector Ghote, an Indian police officer, and yet the writer himself had never been to the country, but had done all his research from maps and books.

But on the whole, it is better to know a setting well to be able to describe it accurately. After all, it is one of the perks of being an author to have a good excuse for frequent days out or holidays abroad.

For years, I enjoyed holidays in Sorrento in southern Italy, vaguely thinking it would make a beautiful setting for a detective novel or film and that no British crime writer had ever used it.

But it was only when I discovered some caves, while walking along the beach of a small fishing village just outside Sorrento, that I got the beginnings of an idea for a plot.

The caves were at sea level and would have been below what was once a Roman villa, providing the owners and their guests with access from the sea thousands of years ago.

The caves looked the perfect place
to hide a kidnap victim

There were some kayaks, paddles and some old fishing nets being stored in the caves now, behind locked metal gates, but it occurred to me that a body could also be hidden there, or a kidnap victim could be kept there. People could bring in contraband items by sea and hide them in there. Or, a character could be imprisoned there by someone who wanted to keep them out of circulation for a while.

When I visited Positano by boat I saw that the coastline of Sorrento had many such recesses at sea level that could be used in this way. They were places that were inaccessible by car and even difficult to get to on foot, but were perfectly accessible by boat if you knew the area well. That’s when the plot of The Shooting in Sorrento occurred to me.

The book, my second Butler and Bartorelli mystery, starts with a bridegroom being shot, seemingly at random by a sniper, while posing for pictures in Piazza Tasso with his bride after his wedding in Sorrento. 

It was a sight I had often seen over the years while on holiday in Sorrento, although, of course, I had never seen anyone actually shot.

Journalist Kate Butler and her partner, retired detective Steve Bartorelli, are staying at the same hotel as the wedding party and Kate feels she has to help the family, who speak no Italian and are traumatised by what has happened.

The years I had spent sightseeing and shopping in the historic centre of Sorrento  helped me enormously in devising my plot as I was able to easily recall how quickly you could get from one location, such as the Franciscan cloisters, to another, Chiesa del Carmine, a baroque church that overlooks the main square, Piazza Tasso.

The cover of my mystery novel,
The Shooting in Sorrento

With my family I had regularly visited the beach of Marina di Puolo, which is out of town on the Sorrentine peninsula, and I had great fun inventing an historic villa with a terrace that overlooked the seafront as the home of one of my characters.

Most people will have a favourite city or holiday resort in their memory bank that they can use as a location in a book and they will find it is a big help to be able to know instinctively whether a character has to turn left, or turn right, to reach a particular place. Also, they will know whether or not it is practical to allow a character to run up a steep hill quickly to reach a place in time for the murder.

If you don’t want to use a real town or village as a setting, you can imagine one of your favourite places that you already know well and move it to another part of the country, or to a different country, and give it another name, but you will still be able to rely on your memories of it to write about it with assurance.

Readers frequently say they will put up with a lot provided a novel has a strong sense of place, so the best settings to choose are the ones you know well and for which you have genuine feelings.

The Shooting in Sorrento is available as a paperback or Kindle ebook on Amazon.

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The Shooting in Sorrento

At last, my second novel, The Shooting in Sorrento, has been published on Amazon.

I feel a big sense of achievement now I have produced another Butler and Bartorelli mystery, the sequel to Death in the High City, which was set in Bergamo in Lombardy.

The book features journalist Kate Butler and her partner, Steve Bartorelli, a retired Detective Chief Inspector. They are in Sorrento for the wedding of the daughter of one of Steve’s Italian cousins.

When tragedy strikes an English family staying at their hotel, Kate feels she has to help them, having already become friends with the mother, Janice, who is a woman of about her own age.

Steve is distracted by meeting up with Italian relatives he has not seen since he was a child and is also wary of becoming too involved with the family because two of his cousins are senior officers in the Polizia di Stato.

Sorrento, where the action takes place in the 
second Butler and Bartorelli novel

Kate is determined to get justice for her new English friends and joins forces with another visitor to Sorrento to investigate, after it becomes clear the Italian police aren’t looking much further than the English family.

The book will delight readers who know and love Sorrento as much of the action in the novel takes place in the ancient streets in the centre of the resort and at locations out along the Sorrentine peninsula.

Kate’s enquiries cause her to wander the narrow streets that run parallel to the Corso Italia and take her down to the beach at Marina di Puolo, but she ends up putting herself in danger when her sleuthing gets her too close to the truth.

I have been able to indulge in my fascination for Italian culture by writing about Sorrento’s colourful history and describing the local wine and food specialities for which the resort has become famous.

The Shooting in Sorrento is believed to be the first British crime novel set in Sorrento.

It is available to buy in paperback or as a Kindle edition from Amazon.

For more information about Sorrento visit www.bestofsorrento.com.

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Death in the High City first anniversary

Death in the High City, pictured against the
 backdrop of the Colleoni Chapel in Bergamo

Successful year for Bergamo’s first English crime novel

Death in the High City, the first British detective novel to be set in Bergamo, has had an exciting first year.

The novel, which was published in Kindle format on Amazon 12 months ago today, has sold copies in the UK, Italy, America, Australia and Canada. A paperback version of Death in the High City was published in July 2014.

I have had some heart-warming emails and messages about the book from readers both in the UK and abroad and I have been delighted with the level of interest in my first novel.

In October 2014 I was a guest at the fifth anniversary celebrations of Bergamo Su e Giu, a group of independent tour guides in the city. I was invited to present Death in the High City to an audience in San Pellegrino Terme and sign copies of the book and also made an appearance on Bergamo TV to talk about the novel with presenter Teo Mangione.

In November the book was purchased by Leicestershire Libraries and is now in stock at Loughborough, Shepshed, Ashby de la Zouch, Coalville, Castle Donington and Kegworth Libraries and is going out on loan regularly.

Signing copies of Death in the High City for
Italian teachers of English in Bergamo in April

In April this year I was invited to Bergamo again to present the novel to a group of 80 Italian teachers of English and to sign copies. I made a second appearance on Bergamo TV and also formally presented a copy of Death in the High City to the Biblioteca Civica (Civic Library) in Piazza Vecchia, a location that is featured in the novel itself.

Death in the High City centres on the investigation into the death of an English woman who was staying in the Città Alta while writing a biography of the composer Gaetano Donizetti.

The novel is the first of a series to feature the characters of Kate Butler, a freelance journalist, and Steve Bartorelli, a Detective Chief Inspector, who is of partly Italian descent and has just retired from the English police.

The victim had been living in an apartment in Bergamo’s Città Alta and much of the action takes place within the walls of the upper town.

The local police do not believe there is enough evidence to open a murder enquiry and so Kate Butler, who is the victim’s cousin, arrives in Bergamo to try to get some answers about her death.

Kate visits many of the places in the city with Donizetti connections and her enquiries take her to nearby Lago d’Iseo and into the countryside around San Pellegrino Terme. But after her own life is threatened and there has been another death in the Città Alta, her lover, Steve Bartorelli, joins her to help unravel the mystery and trap the killer. The reader is able to go along for the ride and enjoy Bergamo’s wonderful architecture and scenery while savouring the many descriptions in the novel of local food and wine.

The novel will be of interest to anyone who enjoys the ‘cosy’ crime fiction genre or likes detective novels with an Italian setting.

Death in the High City by Val Culley from Amazon as a paperback or Kindle e-book.

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What inspires people to write about their travels?

When you visit somewhere new, even the everyday things seem fascinating and you will find yourself telling friends and family about them when you get back.

Just as people like to show you their holiday snaps when they return, or send postcards or text pictures to you while they are away, enthusiasm about what they have seen makes them want to tell others about it.

A compulsion to share what they experienced abroad was what inspired the earliest travel writers.

Among Lord Byron's homes in Venice was the Palazzo
Mocenigo detto 'il Nero' on the Grand Canal

Centuries ago people kept journals about their travels or wrote long letters home giving detailed accounts of what they saw.

Thank goodness they felt the need to share their experiences, because what they wrote has given us a marvellous insight into what places were like in the past.

It is fascinating visiting Venice and seeing it through Lord Byron’s eyes, trying to imagine him in the narrow calle near his various residences, which have changed little since his time there.

He wrote detailed letters about his experiences in Venice to his friends and so we know that he actually preferred to travel by gondola or swim along the Grand Canal to avoid being recognised walking about the city by the tourists of his day.

Marguerite, Lady Blessington wrote
about her travels in Italy

One of Byron’s acquaintances in Italy at that time was Marguerite, Lady Blessington. She travelled further south after Byron set sail for Greece and spent more than two years in Naples staying in rented palazzi. Her journals give us a fascinating insight into what Naples was like at that time.

It was on 17 July, 1823 that  Lady Blessington began her Neapolitan Journals with an account of her first glimpse of the city. She wrote:

“Naples burst upon us from the steep hill above the Campo Santo, and never did aught so bright and dazzling meet my gaze. Innumerable towers, domes and steeples, rose above palaces, intermingled with terraces and verdant foliage. The bay (pictured below), with its placid waters, lay stretched before us, bounded on the left by a chain of mountains, with Vesuvius, sending up its blue incense to the cloudless sky.”

Lady Blessington was to fall in love with Naples and embrace the culture, attending local events, making what at the time were adventurous excursions and entertaining Neapolitan aristocrats and intellectuals.

Those who know Naples will recognise in her vivid descriptions places that have remained unchanged for the last 200 years. She also provides a valuable insight into what life was like at the time for ordinary people as well as the rich and privileged.

People who already love Naples will find her journals witty and endearing and those who have never visited the city will be inspired to go there as soon as possible.

For more information about Lady Blessington’s Neapolitan Journals visit http://www.bestofsorrento.com/2012/07/see-naples-and-die.html 

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What price a room with a view?

Looking out on a beautiful scene from your hotel window in Italy can be an important part of the holiday for many people.

A view of the Venetian lagoon is worth paying a
little extra even in misty November

If you are in Venice it is wonderful to be able to see a canal or the lagoon. If you are in a resort on a lake or by the sea it is lovely to have a view of the water. And if you are in an historic city it is exciting to look out at a famous building or piazza.

Wonderful views have drawn me back to the same hotel in Sorrento each year for the last 20 years. When I stayed there for the first time I arrived late at night with my husband and two young children. When we woke up the following morning to see the fabulous views of the bay of Naples our love affair with the hotel began and we have returned to stay there nearly every summer since.

The hotel, which is at Capo di Sorrento, has a large terrace overlooking the sea with panoramic views that I never tire of looking at.

My favourite view is from the terrace outside my room from where you can see the point of land known as Capo di Massa, which has the remains of a Saracen stone tower on the end where the land meets the sea.

From the dining room, or the terrace outside our room, we enjoy seeing cruise ships going past at night, lit up so they look like glittering diamond necklaces strung out over the sea.

In the mornings we enjoy watching the ferries and hydrofoils crossing from Sorrento to Capri and Ischia, or sailing past Capo di Massa to round Punta Campanella and reach the resorts along the Amalfi coast.

A view of which I never tire... from the Hotel
Dania at Capo di Sorrento

But sometimes when you are planning a holiday it is worth considering what you are going to be doing when you get there and whether it would be more practical to book a hotel in a handy location even if the views are not all that spectacular.

For example, if you are planning to travel about to other places sightseeing it might be better to book a hotel close to the railway station or bus station rather than in the heart of the centro storico.

Then when you return tired after a long day out you won’t have far to go to get to your hotel in order to shower and change for dinner.

If you are travelling with a car it might be worth considering an out of town hotel with free parking close to the autostrada so that you can get on your way quickly each morning.

Hotels in these types of locations are often modern and specially equipped for business travellers, meaning you will have the benefit of the extra facilities. Also, prices tend to be lower than those charged by hotels in the centre of town that have views of the historic sights.

There are many beautiful things to see in Italy while you are out and about during the day and you don’t necessarily have to be able to see them from your bedroom window.

But whether to be romantic or practical is entirely a matter of personal choice and deciding between a great view and a convenient location can be part of the fun of planning your holiday.

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Lady Mary’s writing put Lovere on the map

An 18th century portrait of
Lady Mary Wortley Montagu

Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, who is considered to be the first female English travel writer, was born 323 years ago today (15 May, 1689).

Lady Mary travelled extensively at the beginning of the 18th century with her husband, who was appointed British ambassador to Turkey and during this time she wrote the poetry and letters that established her literary reputation.

She also became an advocate of inoculation against smallpox, having witnessed the practice on her travels.

But in 1739 she left her husband and went to live in Italy alone. After spending time in Brescia in Lombardia she moved to live in Lovere on Lago d’Iseo (pictured above) on the advice of her doctor who thought the climate of the lakeside resort would be good for her health.

Lady Mary was to spend nearly ten years in Lovere, preferring it to the resorts of nearby Lago di Garda which were more well known and popular with English tourists.

She constantly praised Lovere as a holiday resort and is reputed to have once declined an invitation to the Venice carnival saying: “There are plenty of things to do in this village, which, by the way, is one of the most beautiful that exists.”

Lady Wortley Montagu was captivated by the lakeside
town of Lovere, where she bought an old palace

She bought an old palace where she spent happy years designing the garden and reading the books her daughter sent out to her from England .

She enjoyed entertaining local nobility and making the occasional trip to Genova and Padova, inspired to write poetry by the beauty of Lago d’Iseo and the “impassable mountains” surrounding it.

While living in Lovere she wrote in a letter to her daughter: “I am now in a place the most beautifully romantic I ever saw in my life.”

She returned to live in England in 1761 and died the following year. Her last words were reputed to be: “It has all been most interesting.”

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Stop the world, I want to get off … and land on Monte Isola

Peschiera Maraglio at the foot of Monte Isola

If you ever feel like getting away from it all for a while, I can recommend a small lake island in northern Italy.

Monte Isola, in the middle of Lago d’Iseo in Lombardia, provides a real escape from the modern world, although it takes only a few minutes to reach by boat. It is the largest lake island both in Italy and in central and southern Europe, rising to a peak of about 600 metres above the surface of the lake. It is a spectacular sight from the shores of Lago d’Iseo and is a lovely excursion to make in either the spring or the summer.

You can walk all the way round Monte Isola in a day along peaceful footpaths at the side of the lake, enjoying unspoilt natural scenery and beautiful views of the smaller islands of San Paolo and Loreto.

There are some good restaurants where you can eat fresh fish caught from the lake and comfortable hotels if you want to stay the night.

Footpaths provide an easy walk around the island, which is no
more than 3km long and 2km wide

With fewer than 2,000 residents, Monte Isola is a green oasis with hardly any cars, as only the doctor and the mayor are allowed to have them.  There is a minibus service around the island, too.

There are several points around Lago d’Iseo from where you can take a ferry to Monte Isola, but the shortest crossing is from Sulzano on the Brescia side of the lake. You can take a train to Sulzano from the city of Brescia and it is just a short walk from the railway station in Sulzano to the imbarcadero, where you can buy boat tickets and get tourism information leaflets. After a few minutes on the ferry you disembark at Peschiera Maraglio, an old fishing village with shops and restaurants.

From Peschiera Maraglio it is a comfortable walk to the other side of the island and Monte Isola’s main village, Siviano. From there it is a short walk down to the port below Siviano to the imbarcadero where the boats leave for Tavernola Bergamasca on the Bergamo side of the lake. From there you can take a coach to Bergamo .

Or, you can ride back to Peschiera Maraglio on the island’s tiny bus, which leaves from Piazza Municipio in Siviano and from there take the ferry back to Sulzano on the Brescia side of the lake.

If you would like more information about Bergamo and other beautiful places in Lombardia visit www.bestofbergamo.com.

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The inspirational power of Bergamo

The skyline of the Città Alta captivates the
imagination whether on a crisp Christmas night (above)
or a warm summer's day (below)

I have become a frequent visitor to Bergamo in northern Italy over the last few years and started travel writing as a result of my interest in the city.

There are many ways in which Bergamo has inspired me as a writer, but probably its most fascinating feature is the way the Città Alta appears in the skyline enticing you to go up there.

The view of Bergamo’s upper town in the skyline is one of the first things you notice when you arrive. Even as you get off the plane at Bergamo Caravaggio airport it is difficult to ignore the city.

You can see the domes and towers of the upper town silhouetted against the sky from the airport runway.

To move straight on to Milan, or one of the lakes, as many people do, without exploring the medieval Città Alta and the lower town, the Città Bassa, would be a great pity.

If you arrive in Bergamo by train, or take the bus into the city from the airport, you will see a magnificent view of the Città Alta from outside the railway station.

If you stand and look down the long, straight Viale Papa Giovanni XXIII you will see the towers and roofs of the Città Alta silhouetted against the blue sky, suspended as if by mysterious means.

It’s a magical view and makes you want to go straight up there and explore the upper town at close quarters.

The view is different according to the season. I have visited Bergamo in the spring, summer and autumn. The Città Alta looks magnificent on a bright day silhouetted against a blue sky. But it also looks beautiful shrouded in mist in the autumn.

The monumental walls protecting the Citta Alta
were built by the Venetians in the 16th century

One of the most striking features that you notice straight away is the huge wall around the Città Alta.

Le Mura is the name for the 16th century fortified walls that have divided Bergamo into two cities, the Città Alta (the upper town) and the Città Bassa (the lower town). They are truly monumental stone walls, completely surrounding the Città Alta, built by the Venetian occupiers and rulers of Bergamo in 1561 to keep invaders out.

You will sometimes see articles written about Bergamo in magazines and newspapers, and information about the city in travel guides about northern Italy, where the Città Bassa is dismissed as not being worth a visit.

But having stayed in Bergamo many times I have found that there are a lot of buildings of historical importance on both sides of the walls.

Bergamo is an artistic and cultural treasure chest, but also has its own natural beauty, set among hills, mountains, lakes and rolling countryside.

The Città Alta is an impressive fortified town, which has retained many of its 12th century buildings and has had some stunning Renaissance and Baroque architecture added over the centuries.

The Roman column next to the church of
Sant'Alessandro is thought to mark the
spot where the saint was murdered

It is where the Venetian east meets the Lombardian west. Because they governed for so long, the Venetians have left behind traces of their culture and style, such as the ornate fountains.

One of the most historically important places in Bergamo is the spot where the patron saint, Sant’Alessandro, was decapitated by the Romans in 298 for refusing to renounce his Christian faith. Yet it is outside the walls in the Città Bassa.

A Roman column in front of the church of Sant’Alessandro in Colonna is believed to mark the exact spot where he was martyred.

Every year on 26 August Bergamo remembers Sant’Alessandro’s decapitation in 298. For the first time, in 2010, there was a re-enactment of the event in full costume at the scene as part of the annual Festa di Sant’Alessandro.

The church of Sant’Alessandro in Colonna was rebuilt in the 18th century on the site of a much earlier church in Via Sant’Alessandro. Its ornate campanile was completed at the beginning of the 20th century.

The church houses a work depicting the martyrdom of Sant’Alessandro by Enea Salmeggia and one showing the transporting of Sant’Alessandro’s corpse by Gian Paolo Cavagna. It also contains paintings by Renaissance artist Lorenzo Lotto, a Venetian who lived in Bergamo for 12 years.

Via Sant’Alessandro is an ancient winding street that leads down from Porta San Giacomo into the modern centre of Bergamo.

Yet the features and guide book entries that tell you there is nothing of interest in the Città Bassa completely overlook this area.

(An extract from ‘Why Bergamo inspires me as a writer’, a talk given to the Nottingham Dante Alighieri Society in March 2012).

For more information about Bergamo, visit my website www.bestofbergamo.com

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Bergamo airport is dedicated to an artistic genius

When booking flights to Italy you might be puzzled to see references to Caravaggio airport near Milan.

A portrait of Caravaggio
from about 1621

This is because Bergamo airport at Orio al Serio has changed its name to the Caravaggio International Airport Bergamo - Orio al Serio.

ENAC (the Italian civil aviation board) approved the decision by SACBO (the management company of Bergamo airport) to dedicate the airport to the controversial but highly talented painter Michelangelo Merisi.

Bergamo airport is also often referred to as ‘Milan Bergamo’. It is now the fourth busiest airport in Italy and you can fly to it from 29 different countries.

The artist Michelangelo Merisi became known as Caravaggio because he spent the early years of his life living in the small town of Caravaggio just south of Bergamo.

The painter is believed to have been born in Milan in 1571 but his family moved to Caravaggio because of an outbreak of plague.

He returned to train as a painter in Milan but then went on to work in Rome , Naples, Malta and Sicily until his death at Porto Ercole in Tuscany in 1610.

Caravaggio became famous for his paintings for churches and palaces that combine a realistic observation of the physical and emotional state of human beings with a dramatic use of lighting. This was a formative influence for the baroque school of painting.

Despite his artistic success he had a turbulent personal life. He was thrown into jail on several occasions, once vandalised his own apartment and had a death warrant issued for him by the Pope.

Some of his major works, such as The Calling of St Matthew, the Crucifixion of St Peter and Deposition, can be found in churches in Rome , but his work is also well represented in the Uffizi gallery in Florence.

The town of Caravaggio is worth visiting to see the Sanctuary of the Madonna di Caravaggio, which was built in the 16th century on the spot where the Virgin Mary is said to have appeared to a humble peasant woman.

The Sanctuary was later rebuilt and completed in the 18th century and is now a grand building visited by pilgrims from all over the world.

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