Sanctuary of Oropa
The pilgrimage church of Oropa ( Santuario di Oropa in Italian ) is a Marian pilgrimage site dedicated to the Black Madonna and, together with eight other Sacri Monti in Piedmont and Lombardy, has been part of the Italian UNESCO World Heritage since 2003 .
The church is in Oropa , about twelve kilometers northwest of the city of Biella at an altitude of about 1159 meters in a natural amphitheater made of mountains that surround the city below and belong to the Bielle Pre-Alps. In addition to a holy mountain , the Sacro Monte di Oropa , the pilgrimage site includes the original church, which was built over an ancient sacellum, the actual pilgrimage church and various facilities for the reception of the faithful and tourists. In March 1957 Pope Pius XII raised the church to the dignity of a minor basilica .
The pilgrimage church is a stage of the Coeur walking route - In the heart of the paths of Europe and the path of San Carlo . From the pilgrimage site it is possible to reach the mountain hut Savoia (at an altitude of approx. 1810 m) and from there in a few minutes the lake Lago del Mucrone ( 1894 m slm ) on the mountain of the same name. The Oropa cable car leads from the Sacro Monte di Oropa to the Monte di Camino at an altitude of almost 2400 meters. The first and lower section of the cable car (company Piemonte Funivie) overcomes 654 meters of altitude and transports passengers to the mountain station on Monte Mucrone . To the summit of Monte di Camino at 2,391 meters above sea level can be reached with a basket lift the company Marchisio.
history
According to tradition, the pilgrimage site of Oropa was made by St. Eusebius , Bishop of Vercelli , founded in the 4th century. Eusebius is considered the "apostle" of the valleys around Biella, in which Roman and Celtic deities were previously worshiped. The veneration of the Mother of God replaced the cult of the Celtic mother goddesses, especially in the very old cult centers such as Oropa and Crea .
In a bull by Pope Innocent III. from May 2, 1207 two churches are mentioned for Oropa, Santa Maria and San Bartolomeo. According to recent historical studies, these buildings date back to the 8th to 9th centuries. There are two small mountain buildings. While Santa Maria has disappeared due to the expansion of the pilgrimage site, San Bartolomeo has recently been rediscovered and reopened for worship.
The Gothic statue of the Black Madonna , venerated at the pilgrimage site, dates from the first half of the 14th century . Numerous miracles and special graces are ascribed to the Virgin. Initially, the image of the Virgin was in a sacellum , the location of which can still be seen on the north wall of the old basilica next to a boulder , which was probably a pre-Christian place of worship.
From the 15th century, people began to build private houses in Oropa, which occasionally housed pilgrims. The first votive picture , a work by Bernardino Lanino, dates from 1522 .
During the Baroque period, the pilgrimage site underwent extensive structural expansion, also thanks to the protection of the House of Savoy . Famous architects worked in Oropa, including Filippo Juvarra (who created the monumental Porta Regia, among others), Ignazio Galletti and Guarino Guarini .
Pilgrim hostels were built around the old basilica, which was built at the beginning of the 17th century.
During the plague of the 17th century, the city of Biella made a vow to the Madonna of Oropa and was spared the plague. True to the vow, a solemn procession still goes from the city to Oropa every year.
The first solemn coronation of the statue of the Black Madonna took place in 1620 . Further coronations took place every hundred years.
A Sacro Monte was built on a hill west of the pilgrimage site.
Despite the difficult connections, Oropa became a much-visited pilgrimage destination. In addition to the villages around Biella, pilgrims come regularly from the surrounding plains. The nocturnal pilgrimage that takes place every five years from Fontainemore in the Aosta Valley to Oropa is remarkable .
The image of the Madonna of Oropa can be found as a fresco on houses and votive pillars, statuettes and ceramic pictures can be found in all villages around Oropa within a radius of fifty kilometers. In many churches there are copies of the image of Oropa, among which the baroque copy of the Church of San Giovanni in the Piazzo of Biella is famous.
The boulders
In the chronicles of the establishment of the sanctuary, it is said that the statue of the Black Madonna of St. Eusebius was hidden under a boulder to prevent it from falling into the hands of the Gentiles. At the beginning of the 18th century, the inhabitants of Fontainemore built a chapel over this boulder, which is now called del Ròc (i.e. rock chapel).
The old church of Oropa was built with the partial incorporation of a second boulder, called roc 'dla Vita (rock of life), which can still be seen today on the northwest side of the building. This boulder was known in the past for being the subject of pagan fertility cults (like other boulders). The widespread custom of women to rub against the stone in order to favor the birth of a child was gradually reduced to touching the rock with their buttocks. This custom is documented until the 19th century, when access to the rock inside the church - which had already been leveled - was blocked by a metal grille. The example of Oropa is the best documented ritual use of a boulder in Piedmont.
Popular belief
It is said that the ancient statue of the Black Madonna in the sanctuary of Oropa has some special features:
- Despite its age, the statue shows no signs of worm sting or wear;
- despite the old custom of having memorabilia touched by the foot for believers and the sick, the foot shows no signs of wear and tear;
- never put dust on the faces of the virgin and the child.
The cemetery and the new church
The place of pilgrimage grew steadily in importance, so that in the 19th century the construction of a second courtyard was planned, which would also house a cemetery, the remains of which had only been discovered shortly before.
Thereafter, to replace the old one, a new monumental cemetery was built west of the sanctuary not far from the Sacro Monte path, where the family graves of the most important noble and distinguished families of the Biella area were built. Underneath, various tombs bear esoteric symbols relating to the Freemasons ( Quintino Sella’s tomb is even a pyramid).
In the first years of the 20th century, the planning and construction of the monumental new church, an imposing temple, which with its high dome effectively closes off the pilgrimage site, began.
A hill south of the pilgrimage site was leveled to make way for the Prato delle Oche (goose meadow). This made the pilgrimage site visible from Biella. The new church was consecrated in 1960, but it was not possible to move the statue of the Virgin from the old to the new pilgrimage church as it was supposedly too heavy.
1949 was the year of the Peregrinatio Mariae : the statue of the Virgin left Oropa for the first time and was brought to every place in the Biella area. There is an interesting film document of this pilgrimage of Mary.
Weather and earthquake observatory
Inside the sanctuary there is also a weather and earthquake observatory founded in 1874 by the Barnabite Father Francesco Denza from Naples , on whose initiative the Carlo Alberto Royal Observatory in Moncalieri and the network of over 300 observatories in the Kingdom of Italy also go back.
The Oropa observatory is part of the Piedmont regional weather network as well as the regional and national earthquake network.
Narrow-gauge railway to the pilgrimage site
The electric narrow-gauge railway (known as the Biella-Oropa tram) that connected Biella to the heights of Oropa (approx. 14 km in length, approx. 800 m difference in altitude) remained in operation for less than fifty years before a bus line took its place. It was opened on July 4, 1911, just two years after the start of work, and made its last journey on March 29, 1958. The departure station in Biella was opposite the old station to Santhià (today there is a modern shopping center and the office building of the tourist company ). The arrival station was within the pilgrimage site just below the portico.
The cessation of operations was mainly due to the excessive maintenance costs, even if some complaints from the population (the route of the first part ran mostly through the center of Biella) undoubtedly favored the decision to cease operations. Together with the hydrotherapy facilities of Oropa Bagni and Cossila and the cable car that led from Oropa to Lake Mucrone on the mountain of the same name, it was nevertheless a kind of parade horse of Biella tourism for a few decades. Not least because of the curvy and fascinating route that led through the forests of the Bielle Pre-Alps. It was no coincidence that the Biella-Oropa narrow-gauge railway acquired the nickname of the most daring railway line in Italy.
Web links
- Site of the pilgrimage site (Italian / English / Dutch)
Individual evidence
- ↑ http://www.gcatholic.org/churches/data/basITX.htm
- ^ Mario Trompetto, S. Eusebio di Vercelli, Biella 1961, pp. 9-10
- ^ Mario Trompetto, S. Eusebio di Vercelli, Biella 1961, pp. 11
- ↑ Mario Coda, Vendesi antica chiesa in Rivista Biellese, anno XV, n. 2 aprile 2011
- ↑ http://www.lovevda.it/de/datenbank/2/traditionelle-feste-und-prozionen/fontainemore/prozession-von-oropa/13601
- ↑ http://www.montmars.it/viaggio_nella/processione.asp
- ↑ Luigi Motta e Michele Motta, I massi di Oropa in Massi erratici, Torino, Museo Regional di scienze naturali, 2013, pp. 166-169, ISBN 978-88-97189-45-9 .
- ↑ Massimo Trompetto, Storia del Santuario di Oropa, Biella 1983, pp. 20-25
- ↑ http://www.reginamundi.info/SantuarioDiOropa/
- ↑ http://www.reginamundi.info/SantuarioDiOropa/
- ↑ http://www.tonyassante.com/baglioni/2004/fausta2/ilfaustino/renzo/oropa/indice.htm
Coordinates: 45 ° 37 '42 " N , 7 ° 58' 44" E