The Holy House of Loreto

On Sunday morning (March 30) we set off for where we are now, Lucera. This was another four-hour drive and it was even more relaxing than the first stretch since we were away from most major cities. After about an hour, a huge dome and tower caught our attention from the freeway:



I had just begun to realize this might be Loreto, which I had pondered stopping to see a couple weeks ago but since had forgotten about, when an exit sign verified it and David took it! It was such a fun, unexpected break in our journey.

Loreto's huge basilica on the hill centers on a very unique Catholic shrine. Inside the church is said to be the very house in Nazareth where Jesus was raised by the Virgin Mary. It was said to have been carried to Italy from Nazareth by angels in the 1200s. Right! But it's a good site for my website and certainly sounds interesting, so we were glad to have a closer look.




Happily, we found a very safe-feeling parking lot just below the basilica, and it is free on Sundays! David backed the car up to the fence so the trunk wouldn't open, we carried all our camera gear and passports with us, and we set off up the hill for a quick visit.



The outer walls of the church are absolutely huge and look like a castle.


Dome and facade of the church


The church overlooks a piazza that was full of happy people chatting on a warm Sunday afternoon. It was such a nice, friendly atmosphere.


Young Italian men in typical casual attire: too-tight shirt with too-tight pants.


Love this typically Italian group - Carabinieri (federal police), a monk and a nun, who chatted away for quite some time.


Nun in the shadows of the corridor around the piazza.


Inside the church at the east end, this huge Renaissance marble enclosure shelters the Holy House of Loreto. It is a small space but the flow of pilgrims is fairly well organized, with a designated entrance and exit and some space to kneel at an altar inside.


Not wishing to disturb the faithful (though even some of them were using their cell phone cameras!), I took just this one picture above their heads. The altar area in the front is from the 1500s or 1600s but the side walls are said be the very ones from 1st-century Nazareth. The stones indeed look very old, and there were traces of medieval murals on them. All very interesting.

This was possibly the most enjoyable Catholic shrine we've visited yet. There was actually a service going on when we visited and a sign said photos weren't allowed, yet there was a very friendly, welcoming, family-like atmosphere about it, and no one even gave us a second look when we snuck a couple discreet photos. This is quite different from the stern coldness and even glares we have experienced in some other Catholic shrines (notably Einsiedeln in Switzerland).

Here, while the priest said the Mass to a large congregation, other people were milling around the side aisles and area around the Holy House, talking quietly, attending to their kids in strollers, confessing their sins to monks, standing in a little line to get their keys blessed by a priest, taking photos, or filming the Holy House with a camcorder! What an interesting place. We're so glad we stopped.

On the way out David found me an English pamphlet about the church, and back on the freeway I was very interested to read that thorough archaeological testing indicates the Holy House is likely to be from Nazareth. The stone is not found locally and is cut in a way they only do in the Middle East, etc. Even more interesting is that there are written records of an Italian family called "di Angeli" bringing the stones of a house said to belong to the Virgin Mary in Nazareth back by boat in the 1200s, during the Crusades. So apparently it really was brought to Loreto "by angels"!

Sun 3/30 - Wed 4/2: Lucera

Tonight is the last of three nights we have been based in Lucera, a nondescript town that is mostly pretty rundown and dusty. There are some charms to its cobblestoned old town, but one brief walk through it the evening we arrived was enough. There is a large and historic castle at the very top of the hill, but it is only open 9am-2pm and we haven't bothered to tour it.

Yesterday we did a long driving journey to three sights in northern Puglia, all of which were fantastic and will make excellent additions to Sacred Destinations. More on those soon! Tomorrow morning we leave for Ruvo di Puglia, where we will be based for five nights at the Hotel Pineta.