The Holy Sepulchre
It reproduces the place where Jesus was buried in Jerusalem, and is divided into two spaces. One with the figure of Magdalene in a niche, the other with the stone sarcophagus, which contains a wooden sculpture of the dead Jesus, dating back to the late fifteenth century. On each side of the entrance door, two small niches contain the skull of the founder of the complex, Father Bernardino Caimi, and a fragment of the column of the Flagellation.
This was the first chapel built on the Sacro Monte and, as the inscription on the entrance door explains, it was financed by the nobleman Milano Scarognino from Varallo. It was part of the project for reproducing the holy places, conceived by Caimi "so that Jerusalem could be seen by those who could not travel". It was completed in 1491.
At the beginning of the eighteenth century the oratory was built under the cell of the Sepulchre. The walls and vaults were painted by Tarquinio Grassi from Romagnano (1707), while the paintings were made by Tarquinio Grassi and Antonio Lucini from Milan. In 1946 the walls of the Sepulchre were decorated by the Bacchetta brothers, and a new marble urn added. In 1947, was built the baroque altar of the oratory.
Outside the Sepulchre, in a niche, there is a terracotta statue of Bernardino Caimi, holding a model of the Sacro Monte, made by Giovanni d'Enrico in 1638.
A special stone, found during the excavations for the construction of the Sepulchre, was walled under the portico. The legend says that this stone would be very similar to the one that closed the Sepulchre entrance in Jerusalem.