The Basilica of the Assumption

The ancient church of the Sacred Mount, built in the late fifteenth century, dedicated to Our Lady of Assumption, was located where today the Hotel Casa del Pellegrino stands.
In 1614, as it was too small, the construction of the new basilica started with the donations of Agostino Beccarla, a nobleman from Pavia, and the donations of the pilgrims. In 1642 the choir was completed and there with a solemn ceremony, the wooden statue of the sleeping Virgin Mary, one of the oldest of the Sacred Mount was housed. In 1498 the Virgin Mary statue would carry out its first miracle. The statue attributed to Gaudenzio Ferrari is now housed in the little crypt of the Basilica. In the second half of the seventeenth century the nave was built and at the end of the nineteenth century (1896) the building was completed with the current facade, of eclectic style, thanks to a donation of Constantine and Julia Durio. The designer was the architect Cerutti from Valpiana.
The interior is in Baroque style; the nave was decorated by Francesco Leva and Carlo Penna from Camasco (1714), the presbytery and the choir were decorated by Andrea Cucchi from Milan and the artist Giovanni Antonio Orgiazzi the Elder (1748-1750). The six side chapels were completed and set up internally between the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries and reflect the artistic style of the time, ranging from Rococo to Neoclassicism.
The spectacular Baroque terracotta group of the Assumption in Glory is hanged in the choir, surmounted by the Trinity and surrounded by angels and saints. The work is attributed to Dionigi Bussola (1665-1680), a Lombard sculptor coming from the construction site of the Milan cathedral, who also worked at the Certosa in Pavia and in the Sacred Mounts of Orta, Domodossola and Varese. The dome was painted by the Danedi brothers, called the Montalti.
The basilica, with the two images of the Virgin Mary, one typical of the eastern church with the dead Virgin Mary placed in the little crypt and the other one typical of the western tradition, with the Assumption of the Virgin in the choir, complete the religious itinerary of the Sacred Mount.