Through the winding streets of the New World we reached the first square in Hradcany. Apart from the imposing Cernin palace, the square is dominated by a baroque jewel - Prague Loreto. It is a complex of a Baroque church with a monastery and a Loreto chapel. The buildings have rich sculptural decoration and the church attracts visitors 27-bell carillon.
"The name Loretto has origins in the Italian pilgrim place where the Santa Casa – Holy House is located, originally a cottage inhabited by Virgin Mary in Nazareth in Palestine, where supposedly Archangel Gabriel announced to her that she would become mother of God. From here, she and St. Joseph went to Bethlehem, where Jesus was born, and later she came back again. The Holy House has, shortly after Virgin Mary's death, become a worshipped relic, which was however badly damaged after the invasion of the Saracens (Arabian Muslims) into Palestine. Legend says that when the crusading army left Palestine in 1291, a miracle happened. Angels took the Holy Cabin first to Dalmatia and from here into the town in Northern Italy, into a laurel grove, after which the town is called Loreto, which is Laurentum in Latin (laurus – laurel). Archaeological research later confirmed that a part of the brickwork really is identical with Mary's cabin, but it was probably the pope who had it brought from Nazareth in the 13th century. Based on the Italian model from architect Donato Bramante, Loreto was also built in other Catholic countries; in our country it was namely after the defeat at Bílá Hora in 1620. The Holy Cabin in Mikulov, built by Cardinal Diettrichstein, became a model for Prague's Loreto, as Countess Katerina Benigna of Lobkowicz admired it during her visit. She donated Lobkovicz land plots for the construction of Prague’s Loreto, she entrusted the administration of the future sanctuary to the Capuchins, and she called the builder Giovanni Battista Orsi from Vienna. When he died, Andrea Allio continued with the work. The construction started in 1626, the sanctuary was canonized by Cardinal Harrach in 1631, and the construction continued for many years after that.
Loreto Treasure
Katerina of Lobkowicz made a donation to Loreto, which formed a base of the Loreto Treasure. Especially for the protection of an exceptionally valuable work - the Diamond monstrance - a treasury was built in 1702 on the ground floor of the front wing, which was modified by architect Josef Mocker in 1882. In 1962, a new treasury was open on the first floor, made after a project of architect Karel Vacek. The objects of the Loreto Treasure deposited in the Treasury most often date back to the 17th and 18th centuries. They are mostly monstrances, chalices, little altars, miniatures and other votive donations. The oldest object is a Gothic chalice from 1510, a donation of Kryštof Ferdinand Popel of Lobkowicz. The most famous object is the diamond monstrance named Prague Sun. Countess Ludmila of Kolowrat bequeath six and a half thousand of diamonds for its production. The monstrance was made by Vienna goldsmiths based on a design of Jan Bernard Fischer of Ehrlach in 1696-99. It is made of gold-plated silver, decorated by 6222 diamonds, the rest of the diamonds was used as payment for the work. The monstrance weighs more than 12 kg. The monstrance’s crown is composed as a son. Above the Earth with clouds, on a half-moon with a human face, there is Virgin Mary Immaculata with twelve stars around her head. Within the sun’s crown, there is the Holy Spirit in the resemblance of a white enamelled dove."
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