According to tradition, in 1608 a sea storm caught a group of pilgrims on their way back from a pilgrimage to the sanctuary of the Madonna di Montenero in Livorno, among which was Monsignor Pirella, then Canon of the Cathedral of Cagliari. The group addressed a prayer to the Holy Virgin with a promise to build a church on the first peak they would glimpse. As the Ortobène was the first peak that appeared in front of them, once they escaped the danger, the group of miraculously saved people had the church built right there in just thirty days’ time. A Latin inscription on the architrave recalls this event. At the rear of the church there are sas cùmbessias, small temporary houses made available to pilgrims. In the stories in which she remembers her childhood spent in Su Montei, Grazia Deledda tells about the church and the feast dedicated to the Holy Virgin.