Monte Berico — Pilgrimage Shapes the Skyline
Listen at the stop, then read the transcript and follow the sources behind the story.
Listen
Transcript
Monte Berico shows another Vicenza, one built around pilgrimage rather than Palladian classicism. According to Catholic tradition, the Virgin Mary appeared here to Vincenza Pasini during a plague in the early fifteenth century and asked for a church to be built. That is a religious tradition, not a verifiable historical event.
What is historically clear is that a sanctuary developed on the hill and became a major pilgrimage destination. Baroque rebuilding later gave the complex much of its present monumental form.
The long arcades connecting the city to the sanctuary turned devotion into infrastructure: pilgrims could climb under cover. From the hill, Vicenza’s relationship to surrounding villas and countryside becomes visible. Sacred geography and architectural geography meet here.