To the Sacro Monte di Orta

 

Above Lake Orta a wonderful oasis of peace and spirituality

The Sacro Monte of Orta stands on the hill that rises in the centre of the peninsula of Orta San Giulio, located on the eastern shore of Lake Orta. 
The twenty chapels of Sacro Monte narrate the life of St Francis of Assisi in a path that spirals up the hill and shows the most salient moments of his life, from his birth to his canonisation. 
From Orta San Giulio, along the “Motta” slope, you come to Casa Marangoni (now Capuani), the oldest house in the municipality, as it dates back to the 14th century, nicknamed the “House of the Dwarfs”; Palazzo Gemelli, a 16th-century dwelling, and the parish church of Santa Maria Assunta, anticipated by a 17th-century prothyrum. Reaching the top of the hill, one can enjoy a remarkable open view of the lake and the island of San Giulio.
The grandiose monumental arch and the Pilone di San Francesco allow the entrance to the devotional path immersed in vegetation. The atmosphere is clearly reminiscent of the Franciscan spirit. The hill, where Sacro Monte is located, was once occupied by terraces sloping down towards Lake Orta and were kept as meadows or used for the cultivation of fruit trees. In 1980, the Region of Piedmont, with the intention of protecting and preserving this environmental and religious heritage, established the Nature Reserve of Sacro Monte di Orta.

The chapels were erected between the end of the 16th century and the second half of the 18th century and differ in form and architectural style. Inside, they are decorated with frescoes and polychrome terracotta sculptures inspired, as mentioned above, by the life of St Francis of Assisi.
The idea that led to the Sacro Monte project originated with the Community of Orta, but it was the Novara Abbot Amico Canobio who encouraged the design that allowed its realisation to begin.  
The initial plan, entrusted to Franciscan Father, architect and engineer Cleto da Castelletto Ticino, envisaged thirty-two or thirty-six chapels, but only twenty were built. The work was encouraged by Carlo Bascapè, bishop of Novara, who arranged for renowned artists from Milan and Novara to be involved. The life-size statues number over three hundred and fifty and were made by sculptors such as Dionigi Bussola and Cristoforo Prestinari. For the pictorial part, the Fiamminghini brothers, Pier Francesco Mazzucchelli, known as il Morazzone, Carlo Francesco Nuvolone and Giulio Cesare Procaccini were involved. Dionigi Bussola, from the middle of the 17th century, made changes to the arrangement of the sculptural groups and replaced the overlapping wooden gratings between the visitors and the scene with iron gates.

The twenty chapels represent in succession the birth of Saint Francis, the Crucifix speaking to the Saint in the church of San Damiano, the Saint's renunciation of material goods into the hands of the bishop of Assisi, the inspiration received to the evangelical life while the Saint attends Mass, the Robe of the first followers, Saint Francis inviting the first disciples to preach, Pope Innocent III approving the Franciscan rule, Saint Francis appearing to the friars on a chariot of fire, the Robe of Saint Clare, Saint Francis' victory over temptations, St. Francis obtaining from Jesus Christ the privilege of the indulgence of the Portiuncula, Christ Himself approving the Franciscan rule, St. Francis wearing no clothes in the streets of Assisi, St. Francis facing the Sultan of Egypt, St. Francis receiving the stigmata on the holy mountain of La Verna, the return of St. Francis to Assisi, the Saint's agony and death, the veneration of St. Francis' tomb, the miracles at the Saint's tomb, the Canonisation of St. Francis. The last building, built in the Neoclassical style, known as the New Chapel, was never completed.
The sacred tour ends with a visit to the Proto-Romanesque Church of St Nicholas, transformed in the 17th century on the model of the Lower Basilica in Assisi. A painting by the painter Camillo Procaccini, depicting the Nativity, is kept on the High Altar. Next to the church, stands the Ospizio di San Francesco, adjacent to chapel XIV, built at the end of the 19th century to accommodate the religious.

The Sacred Mount of Orta is part of the group of Sacred Mounts of Piedmont and Lombardy, and is considered a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The picture is taken from the website italia.it