Folk Passion Performance

Anniversary Holy Mass

The History of the Pilgrimage Site

The Prague Loreto is a remarkable Baroque historic monument, a place of pilgrimage with captivating history. The expansive decorative frontal façade with a clock tower, from which the Loreto carillon tunes may be heard every hour, shall certainly not go unnoticed by any local or foreign visitor passing here on his or her way to the Prague Castle. It would, however, be a great pity to enjoy only this picturesque view opening before us from the terrace of the Czernin Palace. Those who descend as far as the Loreto Square and pass through the Loreto gate will be pleasantly surprised by the place of pilgrimage disposition. We are convinced they will appreciate everything of interest that is to be seen here.

Devotion to Our Lady of Loreto

The Loreto house - the Santa Casa - is a building that originally stood in the town of Nazareth in Palestine, and was witness to the mysterious and sacred moment of the Incarnation, when the archangel Gabriel announced to the Virgin Mary that she would conceive of the Holy Ghost, and when the Son of God became a man in her body.

The Holy Family stayed in the house after their return from exile in Egypt and Mary lived there until the death of Christ. The Holy House soon became a venerated site for Christians and, subsequently, also a target of repeated attacks by the Saracens. The most recent research has demonstrated that three walls of the Casa, originally attached to a rock, were dismantled in 1291 by pilgrims and transferred in individual sections by ship, first to the present-day Dalmatia, and later, in 1294, to Loreto, close to Ancona in Italy. It would seem that the name of the Angeli family, which stood behind the transfer of the house from the Holy Land, gave rise over time to the legend about the miraculous transportation by the angels (which is often depicted in works of art).