LORETA
Veneration for the Virgin Mary, which centred on the pilgrimage town of
Loreto in Italy to which legend transported the Santa Casa from Nazareth, grew
to such proportions that numerous copies of that "holy hut" were built,
especially in the Habsburg lands. Although the Prague Loreta is not the oldest
example in Bohemia it is among the most important and the most beautiful, in
terms of its architectural design and lay-out in relation to its site. The
Prague Santa Casa was built by the Italian architect Giovanni Orsi at the
instigation and with the financial support of Benigna Katerina of Lobkovice
in the years 1626-1631. Instead of Bramante's marble reliefs on the exterior
of the original Italian structure, the Prague version had trompe l'oeil
painting, replaced after 1664 by the stucco reliefs of Jacopo Agosta,
Giovanni Colomba and Giovanni B. Cometa. Inside the chapel there are
imitations of the paintings in the Italian original as well as of the statue
of the Black Virgin Mary of Loreto. The silver altar dates from the third
quarter of the 17th c. Towards the end of that century a cloister on two
floors grew around the holy house with special chapels for "exotic" saints
(e. g. the bearded St. Starosta). The facade was refashioned in 1720-1722 by
Kilian Ignac Dientzenhofer. It is dominated by the lofty central tower with
the famous carillon made by the clockmaker Petr Naumann in 1694. The
sculptural decoration of the balustrade in front of the facade is the work of
Ondrej Quitainer and the sculptures in the courtyard are by Jan Michal
Brderle. Integral to the pilgrimage complex is the church of the Birth of Our
Lord, which takes up the centre of the east wing of the cloister. This was
built by Jan J. Aichbauer in 1734-1736 in high baroque style. It has wall
paintings by Vaclav Vavrinec Reiner (1736) and Jan A. Sch”pf (1742), framed
paintings are by Jan J. Heintsch, Petr Brandl, Antonin Kern, and there are
sculptures by Matyas Sch”nherr, Matej V. J„ckel and others. The famous
treasury of the Prague Loreta is situated on the upper floor of the entrance
wing. It contains a unique collection of liturgical vessels and vestments,
among which the so-called Diamond Monstrance of 1698 is an outstanding piece,
crafted from a design proposed by Jan B. Fischer of Erlach by the goldsmiths
Matyas Stegner and Jan Khunnischbauer.
