Loreto's basilica grew up around a small stone house that, by tradition, angels carried here from Nazareth in 1294, the childhood home of the Virgin Mary. Built between 1468 and 1587 to shelter it, the church wraps the Holy House in a marble screen carved by pupils of Bramante and Sansovino, its reliefs telling the story of the Annunciation.
Pilgrims still circle the brick walls inside on their knees, a devotion that has worn grooves into the stone floor over centuries. Above the altar stands a dark cedarwood Madonna, carved in 1921 after fire destroyed the medieval original. Loreto itself, a hill town above the Adriatic, has drawn travelers since the Middle Ages, and the basilica's dome announces the sanctuary long before you reach the piazza.
