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Sacri Monti of Piedmont and Lombardy
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How it came to be
Around the turn of the 15th and 16th centuries, as pilgrimage to the Holy Land grew harder, places of prayer began to be built in Europe as substitutes. Sites whose terrain resembled the Holy Land were chosen as new Jerusalems, and the first in Italy was the Sacro Monte of Varallo in the north.
Backed by the Bishop of Milan, Varallo became the model. After the Council of Trent, as the Church set out to counter the Protestant Reformation, sacri monti spread to other mountains in the late 16th and 17th centuries. In chapels along the slopes, Piedmontese and Lombard painters and sculptors depicted scenes from the lives of Jesus, Mary and the saints.
The Sacro Monte of Orta has 21 chapels dedicated to St Francis of Assisi, and at Ossuccio 14 Baroque chapels climb the hillside. Nine sacri monti, among them Varallo, Crea and Varese, were inscribed in 2003.
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