Surrounded by the Ossola Alps and picturesque villages with hillsides still cultivated with ancient vines, a short distance from Switzerland, Sacro Monte winds its way from the village of Domodossola up to the Mattarella hill, a place of very ancient origins whose history is testified by Roman and Longobard finds of building material, ceramics and tools and by a marble plaque from 539 A.D., reused in the curtain wall of the medieval castle, destroyed in 1415 by the Swiss.

Sacro Monte was undertaken in 1656 by the Capuchin fathers Gioacchino da Cassano and Andrea da Rho to reproduce the passion and death of Christ in life-size images in a sort of Biblia pauperum. With the Napoleonic suppression of the monastic orders in 1810, the Capuchin friars were driven out and the convent was used as a barracks.

Renewed vitality animated the complex from 1828 when the new religious order founded by Trentino priest and philosopher Antonio Rosmini took up residence there. Work then resumed with the construction of other chapels until the early 20th century. It features the Sanctuary and a total of 15 chapels.

Contact

(Religious ceremony)
Address:  Borgata Sacro Monte Calvario 5 – 28845 Domodossola (VB)