Sacro Monte di Oropa

Sacro Monte di Oropa
UNESCO world heritage
Sacro Monte di Oropa
National territory:	Italy
Type:	Culture
Criteria :
Reference No .:	[1]
UNESCO region :	Europe and North America
History of enrollment
Enrollment:	2003  (session 27)

The Sacro Monte di Oropa is a pilgrimage site located in the Oropa district of the Italian municipality of Biella . The place belongs to the Sacri Monti in Piedmont and Lombardy , which were declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2003 . The CoEUR pilgrimage route connects the Sacro Monte of Oropa with other five Sacri Monti in Piedmont.

With Law No. 5 of February 28, 2005, the Piedmont Region established the Sacro Monte de Oropa Special Nature Reserve, which is managed by the municipality of Biella and covers the entire Oropa basin up to the border with the Aosta Valley .

history

Twelve, almost parallel chapels are dedicated to the life of Mary and feature frescoes and statues, while the remaining seven represent episodes of Christianity.

There were previously some chapels from the 16th century on the site. Work on the chapels began in 1620, the year the statue of the Virgin Mary was crowned in the sanctuary of Oropa . According to a legend, this statue was carved by the apostle Luke and was used by St. Eusebius , Bishop of Vercelli, was brought to Oropa. The miraculous image, which presumably dates from the 13th century, has become the subject of growing popular piety over time.

The chapels were created on the initiative of the Capuchin friar Fedele da San Germano. The initial project envisaged 20 chapels dedicated to depicting scenes from the life of Mary . The project was supported by Charles Emanuel I , Duke of Savoy , but above all by the parishes in the area, who each arranged for a chapel to be designed. The chapels were built over a period of more than a century without the original plan being completed.

Finally, 19 chapels were built on the Sacro Monte, twelve of the most important of which are dedicated to the life of Mary. These twelve chapels rise along an almost straight path that rises in an extensive clearing. Only in the upper part does the tree population become denser and you enter a wooded area. All chapels are covered with stone slabs in the tradition of the alpine huts. The ambience with distinctive alpine characteristics distinguishes the Sacro Monte of Oropa from the other Sacri Monti in Piedmont and Lombardy.

Among the multicolored statues made of terracotta (which were given a clumsy repainting during the restoration) there are works from the workshop of Giovannis d'Enrico in the chapel of Maria Immaculata ( also called the "dragon chapel" because of a large depiction of the apocalyptic woman ), the Chapel of the Marriage of Mary, in the Chapel of the Wedding at Cana and above all in the final Paradise Chapel with numerous statues of saints and angels who attend the coronation of the Virgin in heaven.

From the beginning of the 18th century, the Auregio brothers in particular created statues. Among the artists who painted the chapels is Giovanni Galliari from Andorno Micca . His design of the chapels of the Nativity of Mary, the representation of Mary in the temple and the Nativity of Christ served as a model for Bernardino , an important painter and stage designer of the first half of the 18th century.

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  Chapel on the Sacro Monte di Oropa

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  Sanctuary of Oropa

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  Figure of a saint in one of the chapels

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  Ceiling of one of the chapels

Web links

Commons : Sacro Monte (Oropa)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Sacro Monte di Oropa on sacrimonti.net (German)
• Shrines and monasteries on atl.biella.it - ​​description of the sanctuary of Oropa on the website of the Tourist Office of Biella (German / English / French / Italian / Spanish)

Coordinates: 45 ° 37 '43 "  N , 7 ° 58' 41"  E