Sacri Monti of Piedmont and Lombardy

Sacri Monti of Piedmont and Lombardy

UNESCO World Heritage Site
Criteria	Cultural: ii, iv
Reference	1068
Inscription	2003 (27th Session)

Sacro Monte di Domodossola.

The Sacri Monti (Italian for "Sacred Mountains") of Piedmont and Lombardy are a series of nine groups of chapels and other architectural features created in northern Italy during the seventeenth and late sixteenth century. They are dedicated to various aspects of the Christian faith and are considered of great beauty by virtue of the skill with which they have been integrated into the surrounding natural landscape of hills, forests and lakes. They also house much important artistic material in the form of wall paintings and statuary. In 2003, they were inscribed as a World Heritage Site.

Sacro Monte di Varallo
Gaudenzio Ferrari, Statue of Christ on the Road to Calvary, Polychrome wood, ca. 1510

The model of the Sacred Mountain is a Christian creation dating from the late fifteenth century, that during the Counter-Reformation spread from Italy to Europe and the New World. A Sacred Mountain is a devotional complex standing on the slopes of a mountain, with a series of chapels or kiosks containing scenes from the life of Christ, the Virgin Mary or the Saints, in the form of painting or sculptures.

As a re-evocation of the New Jerusalem, Sacred Mountains offered pilgrims an opportunity to visit the Holy Places by conjuring up, on a smaller scale, the buildings in which Christ's Passion took place. The Sacred Mountains stand on high ground, at some distance from the town centre, in a more natural setting. They are usually reached by pilgrimage. The itinerary leading up to the Sacred Mountain often re-evokes the Via Dolorosa, the road leading from Jerusalem to Calvary along which Christ carried the Cross.

The nine Sacri Monti are:

• The Sacro Monte or Nuova Gerusalemme (New Jerusalem) of Varallo Sesia (1486), Varallo Sesia, province of Vercelli
• The Sacro Monte of Santa Maria Assunta, Serralunga di Crea (1589), province of Alessandria
• The Sacro Monte of San Francesco, Orta San Giulio (1590), province of Novara
• The Sacro Monte of the Rosary, Varese (1598)
• The Sacro Monte of the Blessed Virgin, Oropa (1617), province of Biella
• The Sacro Monte of the Blessed Virgin of Succour, Ossuccio (1635), province of Como
• The Sacro Monte of the Holy Trinity, Ghiffa (1591), province of Verbano-Cusio-Ossola
• The Sacro Monte and Calvary, Domodossola (1657), province of Verbano-Cusio-Ossola
• The Sacro Monte of Belmonte, Valperga (1712), province of Turin

External links

• UNESCO World Heritage Site entry
• Official English website for European Sacred Mounts
• The nine Sacro Monte of the Italian lakes. The nine Sacro Monte of the Italian lakes were developed for pilgrims in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries as an alternative to traveling to the Holy Land.
• The Chapels of the Sacro Monte Varese. The Sanctuary of Santa Maria del Monte and the Fourteen Chapels, dedicated to the mysteries of the Rosary.