MONASTERIES AND ABBEYS OF THE MARCHE – duration 3-5 hours
The cultural heritage of the Marche region includes not only cities of art, medieval towns with their fortresses and castles, but also religious monuments – churches, abbeys, monasteries.
Traditionally, monasteries and abbeys played an important role in both the economic and secular politics of the state. Perhaps one of the most interesting in the Marche is the abbey of Fonte Avellana, which was home to 76 saints and blessed. Dante Alighieri visited the abbey and mentioned it in his Divine Comedy. The Abbey of Fote Avellana still has a monastic community.
While in the Marche region you should visit one of the brightest gems of Romanesque art – the Abbey of St Mary in Pie di Chienti. Not far from it is also the Abbey of St Claudio in Chienti Its architecture is very distinctive.
But the most famous place of religious pilgrimage is undoubtedly Loretto.
LORETTO – duration 4-8 hours
A small town in the Marche, known throughout the Christian world. It is home to the home of the Mother of God, moved here from Nazareth. Pilgrims flood it at any time of the year.
According to legend, the Equal Apostle Helen, while travelling to the holy places, found this house in Nazareth and ordered to build a church over it. But, in the XIII century, when the Crusaders were retreating under the Saracen onslaught, the church was destroyed and the “Holy House” was taken first to Dalmatia (now the territory of Croatia), and then by sea first to Ancona, and then to Loretto. In the XV-XVI centuries, a Basilica was built over the “Holy House”, which is called “Basilica of Santa Casa”. It is truly a holy place for Christians, because it is in this house that everything began: it is where the Virgin Mary lived and was brought up and where she received the good news from the Archangel Gabriel.
For centuries thousands of pilgrims suffering from various ailments have been coming to Loretto to the “House of the Virgin Mary” to receive relief from suffering and cure from illness. It is said that the Virgin Mary helps in curing even the most serious ailments.
The guided tour in the morning is dedicated to seeing the exterior and interior of the Basilica of Santa Casa. You will see the Piazza Madonna, admire the marble pavement of the Holy House, the wooden statue of the Black Madonna and Child. In the afternoon, a city tour with a visit to the Museum of Ancient Treasures and a panoramic view of the neighbourhood from under the dome of the Basilica.
