“The nine Sacred Mounts of Northern Italy are groups of chapels and other architectural edifices constructed in the 16th and 17th centuries, dedicated to different aspects of the Christian faith. In addition to their symbolic and spiritual significance, they also possess notable characteristics of beauty, virtue and pleasantness, and they are integrated in natural and scenic environments of hills, woods and lakes. They also contain very important artistic remains (frescoes an statues)”. With this motivation, in 2003 the UNESCO registered the site “Sacred Mounts of Piemonte and of Lombardia” in its World Heritage List.
The Sacred Mounts of Piemonte (Belmonte, Crea, Domodossola, Ghiffa, Oropa, Orta and Varallo) and the two of Lombardia (Ossuccio and Varese), highlighting the extraordinary wealth and the quality and the value of these jewels of history, of art and of nature.
The series of chapels, which, with statues, paintings and frescos recount episodes and mysteries of sacred life, merge with the welcoming environmental surroundings and contribute to define the features of each monumental complex. Valuable examples of landscape architecture, the Sacred Mounts are important meeting places for the faithful and for lovers of art.
From the ring of the western Alps, where the phenomenon originated more than five hundred years ago, the Sacred Mounts