Monte Pellegrino, Santa Rosalia & the Patron Saint of Palermo

Monte Pellegrino (the 'Pilgrim Mountain' — the 600-metre limestone promontory jutting into the Tyrrhenian Sea on the northern edge of Palermo, described by the German writer Goethe as 'the most beautiful promontory in the world') is the dominant natural landmark of Palermo and the site of the Santuario di Santa Rosalia (the sanctuary in the cave where the patron saint of Palermo, Santa Rosalia (1130-c.1170), retreated as a hermit in the 12th century — the saint whose relics, found in 1625, were credited with ending the plague epidemic that was killing the people of Palermo).