Holy House of Loreto

The Holy House of Loreto is enshrined in the Basilica della Santa Casa (Basilica of the Holy House). According to pious legends, the house in which the Blessed Virgin Mary is believed to have lived was flown from Nazareth to its present location by angelic beings, after stations at Trsat in Croatia and at Recanati. As a result of the Catholic Church’s increased emphasis on Marian devotion, Loreto became one of Europe's most celebrated and well-frequented pilgrimage sites from the 16th and 17th centuries onwards.

Santuario della Santa Casa (Loreto), color photograph, 2016, photographer: Sailko; source: Wikimedia Commons, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Santuario_di_loreto,_facciata_01.jpg,  Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported (CC BY 3.0), https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en.