THE HOLY HOUSE OF LORETO (ANCONA)

An ancient tradition recounts that the Holy House of Loreto is the same walled Chamber of Our Lady that had existed in Nazareth, in Galilea, in wich Mary was born, was brought up and received the angelic annunciation. This tradition, based on devotion and popular credence, ascribed the transportation of the House of Nazareth to an angelic mission, while recent studies, reading the tradition as were "between the lines"have put forward the hypotesis of a transportation devised by human agency, by sea, with special assistance from above.

ART AND RELIGION

The original nucleus of the Holy House consists of only three walls, because at Nazareth, in the wing where the altar now stands there had been no wall as that side opened onto the entrance of the grotto. The lower sections, to a height of almost three metres, of the three original walls consist mainly of rows of gravel stones, that could be found in Nazareth, while the upper section, wich are later, spurious additions, are made of local brick, the only building material used in the Marche.

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