The original model of the Santa Casa lies in Italy in the town of Loreto, where the original version of the humble house of the Virgin from Nazareth was brought from the Holy Land in the 13th century, to ensure its safety in the pontifical lands. The Italian shrine – a major place of Marian devotion since the Middle Ages – was copied numerous times in Europe. One of the copies, built between 1626 and 1631, is the one that can be admired in the Our Lady of Loreto in Prague. It was commissioned by the baroness Benigna Katherina von Lobkowitz, and was very popular in the Baroque era. Today, the shrine is still taken care of by the neighboring community of Capuchin monks.
The Santa Casa in Prague offers the same striking contrast as the Italian model: a very humble interior made of bricks, and a sumptuous outside decoration, with stucco bas-reliefs that represent scenes from the life of the Virgin.
This place of devotion is surrounded by a beautiful arcade courtyard, built in the middle of the 17th century, with an upper floor added in the early 18th century by the architects Christoph and Kilian Ignaz Dientzenhofer. They are also the authors of the main façade and of the sumptuously decorated Church of the Nativity.
The Loreto shrine also shelters an amazing sacred art treasure, composed of gifts given to the Capuchin community by rich donors: monstrances, chalices, crucifixes, and crowns for the Virgin Mary statues shine with a thousand sparks.
Our Lady of Loreto is also renowned for its carillon, with its thirty bells that ring every hour, playing a very old anthem to the Virgin.

Our Lady of Loreto
Loretánské náměstí 7
Prague 1 - Hradčany (Castle District)
www.loreta.cz

How to get there:
Tramway: line 22, stop “Pohořelec”.

Open Tuesday to Sunday from 9am to 12:15pm and from 1pm to 4:30pm.