The guided tour of Loreto will introduce you to this beautiful town in the province of Ancona, famous for its Sanctuary and other little-known historical and architectural beauties. Let’s start from Porta Marina, one of the access doors to the church / fortress which in ancient times was reached by walking along the Holy Stairs of 330 steps that pilgrims climbed to purify themselves; today the staircase has been restored and is well visible, like the beautiful Torrione Piccolo, one of the two bastions that enclosed the historic centre of Loreto with the walls.
We arrive at square of the Virgin Mary where the talented street artists called “madonnari” create real works of art with a religious theme on the floor; on the square, in addition to the Sanctuary that we will visit shortly, we stop to admire the elegant fountain Maggiore of the ‘600 in Baroque style with the four bronze dragons made by the Jacometti brothers, the Illyrian Palace, the bronze statue of Pope Sixtus V blessing, the patrol walkways at the top of the fortress to defend the Sanctuary against raids from the Adriatic Sea and the beautiful Apostolic Palace (outside) which houses the Pontifical Museum of the Holy House begun in the 1500s on an initial project by Bramante and completed two centuries later by Vanvitelli (designer of the Royal Palace of Caserta).
The main attraction of Loreto is the Sanctuary of the Virgin Mary, a church-fortress built in the Gothic-Renaissance style with splendid bronze doors and the bell tower by Vanvitelli; inside, the Sanctuary houses one of the greatest treasures of Catholic spirituality in the world, the Holy House of Nazareth, or the birthplace of the Virgin Mary where the announcement of her divine motherhood took place, the stone walls from Palestine enclosed in a monumental construction in marble by Bramante decorated with sixteenth-century bas-reliefs of great value, a true architectural and spiritual jewel.
The guided tour ends by exploring the other gateway to the historic centre, Porta Romana with two statues of prophets and the Sangallo Bastion also known as Torrione Grande with the Fountain of the Gauls with the bronze statues of a dragon at the top and four cockerels in the underlying part.
