Loreto and the Holy House
Loreto, a lovely town overlooking the sea, is among the most important Roman Catholic sanctuaries in the world, receiving thousands of pilgrims every year.
In 1291 the house where Jesus had lived with Mary and Joseph, and where the Annunciation had occurred, disappeared from Nazareth. After three years — according to tradition — on December 10th it reappeared in a clump of laurels (laureto, Loreto), transported there by angels. The historical truth is that the house has been dismantled and shipped to Dalmatia by the Crusaders who had left Palestine when it was definitively conquered by Muslims. They could count on the financial support of the powerful Byzantine family of the Angeli (“angels”). In September 1294 Princess Ithamar Angeli married the son of Charles II of Naples, and the house was part of her dowry. The acting pope, Bishop Salvus of Recanati (in Le Marche), ordered the ship transporting the house to land at a harbour close to Loreto. Once the house was reassembled on a nearby hill, a church was built around it, with the characteristics of a fortress (a unique case in the world). Over the centuries it became more and more magnificent, thanks to the work of fine artists, craftsmen and architects. Scientific tests proved that the ancient stones really do come from Nazareth and correspond to the remaining parts of the house which is still there, partially carved into the rocks.
Under the church’s dome there is the Holy House, protected by a carved marble screen designed by Bramante in 1509: one of the highest expressions of Italian art. Two deep grooves have been worn on the floor around the screen by pilgrims going around it on their knees.
Every part of the basilica’s interior is decorated with rich altars, bronze sculptures, frescoes, mosaics. Surrounded by such a splendor, the little house, with its stones blackened by centuries of candle smoke, looks very humble. On the altar there is the statue of the Black Madonna, a copy made in 1922 to replace the byzantine original lost in a fire.
