Loreto
Our Lady of Loreto is the most important Marian pilgrimage site in Bohemia. The sanctuary is built around the Santa Casa, a faithful copy of the Italian model. It is home to a wealth of artistic treasures, including the Church of the Nativity, the treasury of sacred art and the famous carillon, whose bells punctuate the day in the castle district.
The model for the Santa Casa comes from Italy: the town of Loreto is home to the original modest house of the Virgin of Nazareth, brought back from the Holy Land in the 13th century for safekeeping. The Italian shrine - a hotbed of Marian devotion since the Middle Ages - was copied many times over in Europe, including the Our Lady of Loreto in Prague. This was built between 1626 and 1631 on commission from the Baroness Bénigne-Catherine de Lobkowitz, and enjoyed great popular success in the Baroque period. The sanctuary is still run by the neighbouring community of Capuchin monks.
As in the Italian model, the Santa Casa in Prague offers a striking contrast between a very modest brick interior and a luxurious exterior, with stucco bas-reliefs depicting scenes from the life of the Virgin.
A beautiful arcaded courtyard surrounds this place of worship, built in the mid 17th century and extended by a storey at the beginning of the 18th century by the architects Christoph and Kilian Ignaz Dientzenhofer: they were also responsible for the main façade and the sumptuously decorated Church of the Nativity.
The sanctuary of the Loreto also houses a rich treasure trove of sacred art, the result of gifts made to the community by numerous donors: monstrances, chalices, crucifixes and crowns for the statues of the Virgin shine brightly.
As well as its treasure, Our Lady of Loreto is famous for its carillon, whose thirty bells punctuate the hours of the day with an ancient hymn to the Virgin.
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