Sacro Monte di Orta
Encyclopedia
Comune
In Italy, the comune is the basic administrative division, and may be properly approximated in casual speech by the English word township or municipality.-Importance and function:...
of Orta San Giulio
Orta San Giulio
Orta San Giulio is a town and comune in the Province of Novara in the Italian region of Piedmont, located about 100 km northeast of Turin and about 40 km northwest of Novara....
(Piedmont
Piedmont
Piedmont is one of the 20 regions of Italy. It has an area of 25,402 square kilometres and a population of about 4.4 million. The capital of Piedmont is Turin. The main local language is Piedmontese. Occitan is also spoken by a minority in the Occitan Valleys situated in the Provinces of...
, northern Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
) on the summit of a hill known as San Nicolao, which faces the western shore of Lake Orta
Lake Orta
Lake Orta is a lake in northern Italy west of Lake Maggiore.It has been so named since the 16th century, but was previously called the Lago di San Giulio, after Saint Julius , the patron saint of the region; Cusio is a merely poetical name...
. It is one of the Sacri Monti of Piedmont and Lombardy, included in UNESCO World Heritage list.
Construction of the complex, dedicated to St. Francis of Assisi, began in 1583. The project by the Capuchin friar Cleto da Castelletto Ticino
Castelletto sopra Ticino
Castelletto sopra Ticino, also referred to by locals as Castelletto Ticino or just Castelletto, is a comune in the Province of Novara in the Italian region of Piedmont, located about 100 km northeast of Turin and about 30 km north of Novara.It is the birthplace of immunologist Serafino...
involved 36 chapels, of which only 20 were built. Until 1630 they were mostly in the Mannerist
Mannerism
Mannerism is a period of European art that emerged from the later years of the Italian High Renaissance around 1520. It lasted until about 1580 in Italy, when a more Baroque style began to replace it, but Northern Mannerism continued into the early 17th century throughout much of Europe...
style, but from the mid-17th century Baroque and other influences predominated. Construction ended in 1788.
Many of the artworks are of a high quality, some of the most highly thought of painters and sculptors of the period having been commissioned to produce them. The vegetation of the Sacred Mountain runs down to the shores of Lake Orta
Lake Orta
Lake Orta is a lake in northern Italy west of Lake Maggiore.It has been so named since the 16th century, but was previously called the Lago di San Giulio, after Saint Julius , the patron saint of the region; Cusio is a merely poetical name...
and was designed in line with ornamental criteria to match the architecture.
External links
- Sacro Monte di Orta
- Official web site for European Sacred Mounts All information relative to Sacri Monti in Piedmont and Lombardy is available in Italian and English.