Graglia Sanctuary

The origin of the Sanctuary of Graglia dates back to the beginning of the seventeenth century, when the parish priest of the town decided to build a temple of considerable size on the hill of San Carlo and starting from the church of Campra, as many as one hundred chapels, containing life-size statues with scenes from the life of Jesus Christ.

Only in 1655 it was decided to raise a magnificent temple with an adjoining shelter for pilgrims on the hill of Divina Bontà, on which already stood a chapel dedicated to the Madonna di Loreto. The blessing of the first stone took place on 20 September 1659 but the project suffered very long stops.

It resumed in 1760 and within a few years the structure acquired its current appearance, with a 42 m Greek cross plan. for 32 m. culminating in the 38 m high octagonal dome. from the ground.

In the year 1828 the Lauretana Chapel was moved to the place where it is now located and the splendid altar carved in marble by the master Catella of Lugano was built. The organ still functioning today is the work of Carlo Bossi of Bergamo who installed it in 1839. The organ is one of the best in Piedmont.

In 1840 a third floor was added to the structure intended for the reception of pilgrims and the tracing of the beautiful walk around the Sanctuary was carried out.

The current garden of the Madonna was created in the 1930s, characterized by the splendid stone “burnel”.

The sanctuary today remains a pilgrimage destination and four chapels remain from the original idea of ​​the Sacro Monte, dedicated to as many episodes from the childhood of Christ, built between 1664 and 1684.

A point of the Sacro Monte is famous for its hendecasyllable echo: along the path that leads from the Sanctuary to the hill of S. Carlo, with ideal climatic conditions, the phenomenon of an acoustic echo can be reproduced, so qualitative that it can repeat words up to to eleven syllables.