Day 4
The Sacro Monte of Varallo sits atop one of the highest mountain peaks in the region.The only way up, was by ski lift. Considering that the way we got to see this miniature society was by a ski lift tram, you might wonder how it was possible to build such a complex. Everybody asked this question. It was such an honor to be given the task of building this complex, that laborers gratefully went up and down this mountain carrying materials to build with by oxen and hand wagons. When I expressed my own surprise at this intense labor, I was reminded by the historic guides, that so important were these pilgrimages to travelers, that worshippers crawled on hands and knees to reach the holy shrines.

But why would religious followers of the 16th century crawl on their hands and knees to reach the Sacro Monte of Varallo? When construction of the place began in the 15th century, a pilgrimage from Italy to Jerusalem was a long and dangerous one. Thus, the Sacro Monte of Varallo was to be the “New Jerusalem” -- a closer and less dangerous version of the Holy Land. In fact, the first hundred years of construction of the Sacro Monte of Varallo were dedicated to replicating the main sanctuaries of Jerusalem.

The forty three chapels in this bite size Holy Land depict the episodes of Jesus’ life in a mix of paintings and statues. The scenes blur the line between the two dimensional world and the three dimensional world by using statues as the foreground and paintings as the background.

Throughout the centuries, many famous religious leaders have made their pilgrimage to this place. In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, many illustrious cardinals, saints, and dukes frequented the sanctuary grounds. Even Pope John Paul II could not resist the allure of this place when he visited in 1984 to commemorate the 400th anniversary of the death of Saint Carlo.

Today, we ascend the mountain with a ski lift, and are greeted with reassuring venues such as places to buy water, followed by a full restaurant and bar open to the public, but most intended for those who have chosen to stay in the converted hotel rooms above the sanctuaries. One could easily spend an entire week traveling the grounds of this miniature society, and getting a full grasp of the history that surrounds the 45 chapels.