The holy house guarded in Loreto

If there are so many sanctuaries and churches that dot Italy, and many of these are dedicated to the Virgin Mary, none can compare to the Basilica of Loreto. The historic core of this sacred building, which originated in the thirteenth century, is in the so-called Holy House still preserved inside today. Tradition says that on 10 December 1294 the angels raised Mary's house in Nazareth and brought it to the Loreto hill, around which the city today unravels. The story goes that the De Angelis family decided to transport the building by sea after the defeat of the Crusaders in Palestine. Today the house, three walls of simple stone, is incorporated into the rest of the basilica whose construction began in the fifteenth century in the late Gothic style, and continued until the sixteenth century. Many pilgrims come here to adore the cedar wood icon of Lebanon commissioned by Pope Pius XI in 1922. The Madonna of Loreto is the patroness of the aviators, who chose her on the basis of the story of the angelic flight that would have carried the house for miles up to its present location.