At the Sacro Monte of Domodossola

 We discover this Sacro Monte above the main centre of the Ossola.

The Sacro Monte Calvario of Domodossola stands on the Mattarella hill, once a fortification of the ancient Oscella, founded by the Celtic, or Ligurian, population of the Leponzi, on the banks of the Bogna stream in the province of Verbano-Cusio-Ossola.

On the way to Sacro Monte is the Romanesque church of San Quirico, located on a rocky spur on the slopes of the Mattarella hill, containing interior frescoes from the 14th and 15th centuries.

At the top of the hill is the Sanctuary of the Holy Cross, whose construction dates back to 1657.

At the top of the slope, there is a house built in 1681 by the Valais baron Gaspare Stockalper della Torre di Briga, governor of Valais and entrepreneur, who was forced into exile in Ossola, right on Monte Calvario. He was the great financier of the Sacro Monte project.

His home, which has been restored, is now the seat of the offices of the ‘Special Nature Reserve’.

The ‘Via Crucis’ of Sacro Monte begins where the Sanctuary of the Madonna della Neve in Domodossola stands. A cobbled path in the midst of a forest of chestnut, beech and oak trees climbs towards the Mattarella hill, on the summit of which the remains of the walls of a large medieval castle are clearly visible. A luminous cross was erected on the central tower of the fortification, destroyed in 1415 by the Swiss who had come down over the Alpine passes to occupy the Ossola Valley, in 1955 to mark the centenary of the death of the Blessed Antonio Rosmini.

Following the destruction of the castle, the hill was left in a state of abandonment for over two centuries until, in the second half of the 17th century, the site was chosen to represent the Passion of Jesus Christ.

The Capuchin fathers Gioacchino da Cassano and Andrea da Rho of the Domodossola convent were the first to present the plan for the Sacro Monte Calvario during the Lenten sermons of 1656. The plan was welcomed by the entire Ossola community, which was willing to make the financial commitment. The jurisconsult Giovanni Capis was entrusted with the role of patron of the vestry.

The choice of location fell on the Mattarella hill, considered a stronghold against foreign invasions.

Along the entire route of the ‘Way of the Cross’, crosses were placed in the ground on the places where the various chapels would be built. In 1657, a grandiose entrance arch was built, later demolished in the 19th century, near the gate to the south of the town.

On 8 July 1657, the foundation stone of the Sanctuary was laid and, in 1662, the imposing Crucifix made by the Lombard artist Dionigi Bussola was erected.

The plans for Sacro Monte Calvario are attributed to the architect Tommaso Lazzaro of Val d'Intelvi, while the construction of the chapels began in the 17th century and was completed in the 19th century.

Between 1660 and 1694, the Oratory of Our Lady of Graces was built, which houses a 15th-century fresco depicting the ‘Madonna and Child’, believed to be miraculous, and a scaled-down construction of the Holy House of Loreto, attached to the same oratory.

Dionigi Bussola sculpted numerous statues for the chapels, later the sculptor Giuseppe Rusnati took over, assisted by the masters Antonio and Domenico Perini, the painters Giovanni Sampietro and Lorenzo Peracino, and the architect Pier Maria Perini.

In the years following 1810, Sacro Monte went through a period of decline, due to the suppression of the religious orders. This situation remained unchanged until the arrival of the Blessed Antonio Rosmini, who founded the Institute of Charity, located near the Sanctuary, which then came back to life.

The twelfth and thirteenth chapels, representing Jesus Christ dying on the Cross and the Deposition respectively, are located inside the Sanctuary. The Chapel of the Sepulchre, the fourteenth, is accessed by a staircase outside the Sanctuary itself and was created in the foundations of the building to reproduce a grotto in which statues by the sculptor Dionigi Bussola were placed.

The chapel of Paradise, the fifteenth, stands isolated from the shrine and depicts a scenographic representation of the Resurrection with nine terracotta statues by the sculptor Giuseppe Rusnati. The large dome was frescoed by the Milanese painter Giovanni Sampietro.

The official consecration took place on 27 September 1690 by Giovanni Battista Visconti Aicardi, Bishop of Novara.

The Sacro Monte Calvario of Domodossola is officially a World Heritage Site, a Biosphere Reserve and a UNESCO Protected Property, recognised in 2003. Moreover, since 1990, it has been part of the group of sites considered a ‘Special Nature Reserve’ of Piedmont.

Photo: View of the Sacro Monte of Domodossola (from sacrimonti.org)