Saint Our Lady of Loreto

The Basilica della Santa Casa (English: Basilica of the Holy House) is a Marian shrine in Loreto, in the Marches, Italy. The shrine is widely known for preserving the house of the Holy Family. Pious legends claim the same house was supernaturally flown over by angelic beings from Nazareth to Tersatto (Trsat in Croatia), then to Recanati, before arriving at the current site. The shrine is designated a basilica by the privilege of immemorial status. The basilica is also known for enshrining the Madonna and Child image of "Our Lady of Loreto". Pope Benedict XV designated her under this title as patroness of air passengers and auspicious travel on 24 March 1920. Pope Pius XI granted a Canonical Coronation to the venerated image made of Cedar of Lebanon wood on 5 September 1922, replacing the original Marian image consumed in fire on 23 February 1921. The basilica containing the Santa Casa is a Late Gothic structure built starting from 1468, and continued by Giuliano da Maiano, Giuliano da Sangallo, and Donato Bramante. It is 93 metres (305 ft) long, 60 m (200 ft) wide, and its campanile is 75.6 m (248 ft) high. The façade of the church was erected under Pope Sixtus V, who fortified Loreto in 1586 and gave it the privileges of a town; his colossal statue stands on the parvis, above the front steps, a third of the way to the left as one enters. Over the principal doorway there is a lifesize bronze statue of the Virgin and Child by Girolamo Lombardo; the three superb bronze doors executed at the latter end of the 16th century under the reign of Pope Paul V (1605–1621) are also by Lombardo (1506–1590), his sons and his pupils, among them Tiburzio Vergelli (1551–1609), who also made the fine bronze font in the interior. The doors and hanging lamps are by the same artists. The richly decorated campanile (1750 to 1754), by Luigi Vanvitelli, is of great height; the principal bell, presented by Pope Leo X in 1516, weighs 11 tons.