Loreto

The Loreto is defined by the three-story high Baroque facade dominated by a central tower that houses a famous carillon of twenty-seven bells. Founded in sixteen twenty-six by the noblewoman Katerina of Lobkowicz, this complex of chapels and cloisters was built to promote a legend that angels carried the house of the Virgin Mary from Nazareth to Italy. During the plague of sixteen forty-four, the bells began ringing regularly to comfort the sick, a tradition that continues to this day.