The history, as passed on for centuries, starts in 1294. It was then that, according to the historians, crusaders returning form Palestine transported (miraculously) the home of the Holy Family of Nazareth. They brought it to Loreto and since then, also owing to various apparitions of the Virgin Mary and other divine events, it attracts enormous masses of faithful every year.

The true Sanctuary as we know it today was started in 1468 with the contribution of various illustrious architects of its time; Bramante, Sansovino, Vanvitelli, L.Signorelli. For two centuries illustrious visits alternated, from Torquato Tasso to Christina of Sweden, from Mozart to Goldoni.

French troops’ occupation, on the 13th of February 1797, was devastating. A good part of the rich religious furnishings kept in the Treasure of the sanctuary was plundered and many objects ended up in Paris. The year after a republican government was set up in the city, which was made to fall on the 14th August 1799 by a revolt of the local farmers, backed by the Pontifical authorities.

The time of the Restoration marked the rebirth of Loreto as a pilgrimage and assistance centre to the infirm (a vocation which still motivates its existence today).

Inside the grand Sanctuary the Holy House is kept, a stone construction with rectangular base, almost ten metres long and four wide. The origin of the Galilee was put into doubt for centuries; but on the stones and the materials inside the Holy House some chemical and physical tests were done that have certified its being original.

Inside the House itself you can admire, in a niche above the altar, the statue of the Madonna with the Child in cedar wood. It is not the original statue, which was destroyed in a fire in 1921. Every year, on the second Sunday of June, a pilgrimage on foot is organised, starting in Macerata and arriving at Loreto.

March.2002