The Church of St. Mary of Mount Berico (Italian: Basilica di S. Maria di Monte Berico) is a Roman Catholic and minor basilica in Vicenza, northern Italy. The church is a Marian shrine, and stands at the top of a hill which overlooks the city.
According to the tradition, as recorded in several documents, the Blessed Virgin appeared on the hill twice to a peasant worker named Vincenza Pasini; the first time occurred on March 7, 1426, the second on August 1, 1428. At this time in Veneto, people and economy had been suffering from a terrible plague for years. Mary promised that if people of Vicenza built a church on the top of the hill she would rid them of the plague. People kept their promise and the church was built in 3 months.
The original church later became a sanctuary. It was designed by the architect Carlo Borella (1688) and was decorated by the sculptor Orazio Marinali from Bassano. The city of Vicenza ordered an inquiry through the Notary Publics to look into these two exceptional events. The inquiry followed through during November, 1430. The court recordings are still preserved today in the city library, 'Biblioteca Civica Bertoliana'.
The first religious services of the basilica were given to the Order of Bridgettines (the Franciscan Order of Santa Brigida) by the city on November 2, 1429. At the end of May, 1435, the nuns of Saint Brigid were ordered to leave the basilica by order of Pope Eugene IV on March 18, 1435, and were ordered to return to their original way of life of their order's foundation.
The Vicenza city magistracy was given the rights to Monte Berico. They then proceeded to cede the church and convent to the Servite Order (Servants of Mary) on May 31, 1435. The next day, Francesco Malipiero, the bishop of Vicenza, gave the chapel the name that still exists today.
Piazzale della Vittoria is the square in front of the basilica which was dedicated September 23, 1924. It lies at the front of the northern facade and shows a full view of the city of Vicenza. A vast circular cement railing circles around this large open balcony, which looks out over the city.
On the top of the railings there are markers that point out the well-known cities and panoramic views. One of the best known views is Monte Grappa. Some other sites that can be viewed are the foothills of the Alps (Dolomites), along with the Lessini hills, Venetian Lagoon, Mount Pasubio, Piave River, and many other sites in Veneto.
The Madonna
The statue of the Virgin Mary was sculpted by Nicolò da Venezia in 1430, two years after the second apparition to a local peasant named Vincenza Pasini.
Restoration
The original basilica has been restored repeatedly during the centuries, sometimes with famous architects such as Palladio, Piovene and Miglioranza. All these changes are still visible today.
Architecture
The stairs constructed in honour of the Blessed Virgin Mary in 1595 were ordered by Giacomo Bragadin, a leading figure of the Republic of Venice in Vicenza. The stairway terminates in a small open clearing halfway up the hill where there is a view of the city below.
Veronese's The Supper of St. Gregory
This walkway currently connects the city with the Sanctuary of the Madonna. These stairs were designed and built by Francesco Muttoni on March 7, 1746. The total length of the stairs is around 700 meters, consisting of 150 arches, grouped in tens. Each group is divided to symbolize the 15 mysteries and the 150 Hail Marys in the rosary.
The church contains a number of artworks, including:
The supper of St. Gregory recalls an event wherein, Gregory who always dined with 12 individuals to recall the last supper, once found that while dining an unexpected pilgrim arrived . Later this pilgrim identified himself as Jesus. The monkey in chain supposedly symbolizes paganism; while the dog symbolizes the power of fealty.
A shrine to the Virgin Mary, or Marian shrine, is a shrine marking an apparition or other miracle ascribed to the Blessed Virgin Mary, or a site on which is centered a historically strong Marian devotion. Such locales are often the destinations of Christian pilgrimages.
Vicenza is a city in northeastern Italy. It is in the Veneto region, at the northern base of the Monte Berico, where it straddles the River Bacchiglione. Vicenza is approximately 60 kilometres (37 mi) west of Venice and 200 kilometres (120 mi) east of Milan.
Tommaso di Cristoforo Fini, known by his nickname Masolino da Panicale, was an Italian painter. His best known works are probably his collaborations with Masaccio: Madonna with Child and St. Anne (1424) and the frescoes in the Brancacci Chapel (1424–1428).
Andrea Palladio was an Italian Renaissance architect active in the Venetian Republic. Palladio, influenced by Roman and Greek architecture, primarily Vitruvius, is widely considered to be one of the most influential individuals in the history of architecture. While he designed churches and palaces, he was best known for country houses and villas. His teachings, summarized in the architectural treatise, The Four Books of Architecture, gained him wide recognition.
The Basilica Palladiana is a Renaissance building in the central Piazza dei Signori in Vicenza, north-eastern Italy. The most notable feature of the edifice is the loggia, which shows one of the first examples of what have come to be known as the Palladian window, designed by a young Andrea Palladio, whose work in architecture was to have a significant effect on the field during the Renaissance and later periods.
Aviano is a town and comune (municipality) in the Regional decentralization entity of Pordenone at the foot of the Dolomites mountain range in Friuli-Venezia Giulia, northeast Italy.
Antonio Balestra was an Italian painter of the Rococo period.
The Diocese of Vicenza is a Latin diocese of the Catholic Church in Italy. It is located in the region of the Veneto, and is the capital of the Province of Vicenza, approximately 60 km west of Venice, and around 45 km east of Verona. The diocese was in existence before 590. Vicenza was a suffragan of the Patriarchate of Aquileia until 1751. In 1751 it was transferred to the ecclesiastical province of Udine. In 1818, upon the dissolution of the ecclesiastical province of Udine, Vicenza was made it a suffragan of the Patriarchate of Venice.
Alessandro Maganza (1556–1630) was an Italian painter of the Mannerist style, born and active in Vicenza, as well as in Venice.
The Abbey of Santa Giustina is a 10th-century Benedictine abbey complex located in front of the Prato della Valle in central Padua, region of Veneto, Italy. Adjacent to the former monastery is the basilica church of Santa Giustina, initially built in the 6th century, but whose present form derives from a 17th-century reconstruction.
The Sanctuary of Oropa is a group of Roman Catholic buildings and structures in Oropa, frazione of the municipality of Biella, Italy. It is located at a height of 1,159 metres in a small valley of the Alpi Biellesi.
Vittorio Emanuele Bressanin was an Italian painter.
A pilgrimage church is a church to which pilgrimages are regularly made, or a church along a pilgrimage route, like the Way of St. James, that is visited by pilgrims.
The Arco delle Scalette is an arch in Vicenza, built in 1596, whose design is attributed to the architect Andrea Palladio.
The Sanctuary of the Madonna del Pilastrello is a Renaissance style, Roman Catholic minor basilica church in the city of Lendinara, in the province of Rovigo, region of Veneto, Italy.
Francesco Muttoni was an Italian architect, engineer, and architectural writer, mainly active near Vicenza, Italy.
Sant'Eufemia is a Roman Catholic church located in the island of Giudecca in Venice, Veneto, Italy and dedicated to saint Euphemia.
The following is a timeline of the history of the city of Vicenza in the Veneto region of Italy.
The Jewel of Vicenza was a silver model of the city of Vicenza made as an ex-voto in the 16th century and attributed to the architect Andrea Palladio. The Jewel was stolen by the Napoleonic army during the Italian Campaign in the French Revolutionary Wars and subsequently destroyed. A copy was created between 2012 and 2013.
The city of Vicenza is extremely rich in churches, monasteries, convents and other buildings intended for worship or religious activities, built during the seventeen centuries of Christian presence in the city.
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