The New Jerusalem with 45 chapels
Above the town of Varallo, in the Valsesia, on a rocky spur covered with woods, the Sacro Monte di Varallo is the oldest and most important of the Sacri Monti of Piedmont and Lombardy, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2003. It was founded in 1491 by the Franciscan friar Bernardino Caimi, who, having returned from the Holy Land, where he had been guardian of the Holy Sepulchre, wanted to recreate here a "New Jerusalem", allowing the faithful who could not undertake the long and dangerous journey to Palestine to make a pilgrimage to the holy places of the life of Christ.
The complex, which developed over the following centuries, consists of a basilica and 45 chapels scattered in a monumental garden, which tell the story of Christ from the Fall of Adam and Eve to the Last Judgement, with over 800 life-size statues in wood and painted terracotta and about 4,000 figures in frescoes. The scenes are so realistic, with real hair, glass eyes and lifelike expressions, that they look like scenes of a great theatre frozen in time. Among the artists who worked here, the greatest was Gaudenzio Ferrari, a native of the Valsesia, author of the extraordinary chapel of the Crucifixion, with dozens of statues and frescoes, and of the frescoes in the church of Santa Maria delle Grazie at the foot of the mountain. Other famous chapels were made by Tanzio da Varallo and Morazzone.
Tip: you can reach the Sacro Monte by cable car from the centre of Varallo, or on foot along a path through the woods in about twenty minutes.
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