Loreto is a hilltown and comune of the Italian province of Ancona, in the Marche. Its 2003 population was 11,400. In Italy, the commune (comune, plural comuni) is the basic administrative unit of both provinces and regions, and may be properly approximated in casual speech by the English word township. ... Ancona Province Coat of Arms Ancona is a province in the Marche region of central Italy. ... Marche - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia /**/ @import /skins-1. ...

Location

Loreto is located at 43°26N 13°26E, at 127 m (417 ft) above sea-level on the right bank of the Musone river. It is 22 km (15 mi) by rail SSE of Ancona. Like many places in the Marche, it provides good views from the Apennines to the Adriatic. Ancona is a city and a seaport in the Marche, a region of northeastern Italy, population 100,507 (2001). ... The Apennine Mountains (Italian: Appennini) stretch 1000 km from the north to the south of Italy along its east coast, forming the spine of the country. ... The Adriatic Sea Source: NASA The Adriatic Sea is an arm of the Mediterranean Sea separating the Apennine peninsula (Italy) from the Balkan peninsula, and the system of the Apennine Mountains from that of the Dinaric Alps and adjacent ranges. ...

Sights

Loreto's main monuments occupy the four sides of the piazza: the college of the Jesuits, the Palazzo Comunale (formerly the Palazzo Apostolico), designed by Bramante, with an art gallery with works of Lorenzo Lotto, Vouet and Caracci as well as a collection of majolica, and the Basilica of the Holy House (Chiesa della Casa Santa). A piazza is an open square in a city, often used as a marketplace, found in Italy. ... The Society of Jesus (Latin: Societas Iesu), commonly known as the Jesuits, is a Roman Catholic religious order. ... Donato Bramante Donato Bramante (1444 - March 11, 1514), Italian architect, who introduced the Early Renaissance style to Milan and the High Renaissance style to Rome, where his most famous design was St. ... Lorenzo Lotto (c. ... There are several people with the name Carracci. ... Majolica is earthenware with a white tin glaze, decorated by applying colorants on the raw glazed surface. ... The Basilica of the Holy House, or Chiesa della Casa Santa, is a Catholic place of pilgrimage in Loreto (AN), Italy. ...

See also

• Shrines to the Virgin Mary

In Christian culture and practice, 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. ...

External links and references

• Official Site of the comune
• Official site of the sanctuary
• Catholic Encyclopedia article Loreto
• This article incorporates text from the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica, which is in the public domain.
• U. Chevalier, Notre-Dame de Lorette (Paris, 1906);