Loreto, just inland from the Adriatic sea in the Marche Region, is a town developed around one of the most important Marian shrines in the world housing the Holy House or Santa Casa, that is the very home in which the Virgin Mary lived, conceived and raised the young Jesus. According to tradition, the Holy House arrived to the hill of Loreto in 1294 transported by angels and during the centuries a large Basilica has been built around the small shrine by the best architects and artists of the time. The result is a showcase of work by many of the most celebrated names of Late Renaissance Italy and a sacred site that attracts as many as 4 million of Catholic pilgrims and visitor each year.

The Holy House which tradition identifies as the parts of the dwelling of the family of Jesus at Nazareth connected to the grotto cut out of the rock still venerated in the Nazareth is now enclosed in a remarkable marble encasement (1507). The little chapel consists of a room measuring 9.50x4m with the walls made of the stones from Nazareth in the lower part which are the main attraction together with the statue of the black Madonna clothed in the traditional dalmatic.

Our Lady of Loreto in 1910 became the patron saint of pilots because of the tradition of the house’s flight from Nazareth.

Loreto città santuario, sede del più grande santuario mariano d’Italia e uno dei maggiori luoghi di pellegrinaggio al mondo sviluppata intorno alla celebre Basilica che ospita la Santa Casa di Nazareth dove, secondo la tradizione, la Vergine Maria nacque, visse e ricevette l’annuncio della nascita miracolosa di Gesù che, secondo la leggenda, arrivò a Loreto nel 1294, trasportata dagli angeli. La basilica custodisce capolavori dei migliori artisti del Quattrocento e del Cinquecento, quali Melozzo da Forlì, Luca Signorelli e il Pomarancio. (Si ricorda che la visita guidata in Basilica è autorizzata solo con l’uso degli auricolari che dobbiamo prenotare in anticipo al costo di euro 1.50 a pax)