Loreto (Italy)

Geography

The city occurred at the top of a soft inclined hill, which overhangs the surrounding countryside.

History

The city developed around the basilica which shelters the Santa Casa , i.e. the house where was born the Virgin Mary, where she lived and accepted the Annunciation of the miraculous birth of Jesus. According to a legend, when Nazareth (where the house of Marie was), was about to be conquered by the Musulmans, a procession of Ange S raised the house during the night of the 9 with the December 10th 1294, and transported it beyond the seas in Loreto in this only night. For this reason, the Virgin of Lorette was adopted later like sponsors by the aviators.

Actually, it is a Byzantine prince , Ange Commène, which took in 1290 the initiative to transfer a typical house from Palestine since Nazareth until in the Italian Marches (undoubtedly subject to remuneration, since that had made a success of a few decades earlier with the king of France Louis IX). The house was dismounted in Nazareth in 1291, was unloaded then on the coasts of Dalmatie and was finally reassembled in Loreto in 1294.

The construction of the Basilique begins in 1468 and is completed in 1587 (the Campanile, due to Luigi Vanvitelli was set up between 1750 and 1754). Starting from 1480, the radiation of the Sanctuaire attracts a growing number of inhabitants and workers, and one builds a hospital for the pilgrims from all Europe. The city is pregnant walls drawn by Antonio da Sangallo the Young person and set up in 1518, then flanked of four Bastion S in 1600.

The September 12th 1920 took place of the festivities to proclaim Notre-Dame de Lorette holy owner of the aviators, at the end of a Bref of the pope Benoît XV, marked the March 24th of this same year. A consequence of this decision was the construction of the School of Italian Military aviation (S.P.S.A.M.). An institute of linguistic studies was assistant for him more recently.

The sanctuary

The house of the Virgin, the Santa Put , consisted of a whole of three walls leant with a cave dug in a rock (which is in Nazareth, in the basilica known as of the Annonciation). The petrographic analysis and architectonic contradicted the Palestinian origin of the building, of which the elements strongly point out the stone size of the Nabatéens, a tribe close to the Hebrew. The graffiti found on certain blocks of masonry were dated from 2nd at the 5th century apr. J.C. Moreover, the study of the hardcores confirmed that they marry perfectly the traces located on the cave of Nazareth.

The basilica

It is initially a small framed rectangular construction of a gantry, then of a church, and finally of the current building. Its construction was the work of Tuscan Giuliano da Maiano and Baccio Pontelli, with Venetian Marino di Marco da Cedrino. The basilica is gothic script of the Rebirth, in plan in cross inherited a structure former to three naves, combined with a center in Greek cross. The octagonal Coupole was set up between 1498 and 1500 by Giuliano da Sangallo. Bramante itself took share with the construction of the frontage, but the work of this Master is not any more very visible after the finishing of Giovanni Boccalini. Inside, the three naves are separated by square columns united by intersecting ribs .

Commemorative event

Festivals, fairs

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Administration

Hamlets

Districts: walled, Costa, it Pozzo, Piana E Montereale;
Frazioni: Musone villa, Costantina Villa, Stazione E Berghigna Villa, Costabianca E Cave

Communes bordering

Castelfidardo, Oporto Recanati, Recanati

Twinnings

See too

Our-Lady-with-Lorette

External bonds

Guide for a pilgrimage with Loreto

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