This Marian pilgrimage site with the Baroque Church of the Nativity and a replica of the Holy House is surrounded by cloisters and chapels. In the tower there is a 27-bell carillon that plays the Loretan Marian song (every hour from 10 am to 5 pm). The Loreto treasure consists of a rare collection of liturgical objects and other votive gifts from the 16th to 18th centuries, the most famous of which is the "Prague Sun", a monstrance encrusted with 6,222 diamonds
The name Loretto has origins in the Italian pilgrim place where the Santa Casa – Holy House is located, originally a cottage inhabited by Virgin Mary in Nazareth in Palestine, where supposedly Archangel Gabriel announced to her that she would become mother of God. From here, she and St. Joseph went to Bethlehem, where Jesus was born, and later she came back again. The Holy House has, shortly after Virgin Mary's death, become a worshipped relic, which was however badly damaged after the invasion of the Saracens (Arabian Muslims) into Palestine. Legend says that when the crusading army left Palestine in 1291, a miracle happened. Angels took the Holy Cabin first to Dalmatia and from here into the town in Northern Italy, into a laurel grove, after which the town is called Loreto, which is Laurentum in Latin (laurus – laurel). Archaeological research later confirmed that a part of the brickwork really is identical with Mary's cabin, but it was probably the pope who had it brought from Nazareth in the 13th century. Based on the Italian model from architect Donato Bramante, Loreto was also built in other Catholic countries; in our country it was namely after the defeat at Bílá Hora in 1620. The Holy Cabin in Mikulov, built by Cardinal Diettrichstein, became a model for Prague's Loreto, as Countess Katerina Benigna of Lobkowicz admired it during her visit. She donated Lobkovicz land plots for the construction of Prague’s Loreto, she entrusted the administration of the future sanctuary to the Capuchins, and she called the builder Giovanni Battista Orsi from Vienna. When he died, Andrea Allio continued with the work. The construction started in 1626, the sanctuary was canonized by Cardinal Harrach in 1631, and the construction continued for many years after that.
The Holy House, under which there is the Lobkowicz family crypt established by countess Lobkowicz, is located in the middle of the courtyard surrounded by six chapels. The cabin is decorated by marble reliefs of Giovanni Bartolommeo Cometa, who imitated the originals of Sansovino. One of the reliefs reminds the legend on transferring the house. Inside, there is a 110 cm high Virgin Mary of Loreto in a silver niche, with baby Jesus, from the 1620s, carved out from lime wood. The statue has a black skin color to resemble the Italian original made of cedar wood. This Italian medieval statue turned black over time, which was partly due to the former means of lighting with candles. There is an artificially created crack based on the cabin in Italian Loreto, where the stroke of lightning was supposed to awake the villagers to protect the cabin when a thief got in.
Source and more information: (
visit link)
Tavík František Šimon (13 May 1877 in Železnice – 19 December 1942 in Prague), the author this painting, was a Czech painter, etcher, and woodcut artist. Born František Šimon, he later adopted the additional name 'Tavík', which was his mother's maiden name, generally signing his work T. F. Šimon. Largely ignored during the Communist era in Czechoslovakia, his work has received greater attention in recent years.