a city in the province of Macerata-e-Caminino, in the Papal States, standing on a hill 3 miles from the Adriatic, on the E. coast of Italy. Though but a small city, consisting of little more than one long and narrow street, yet it has obtained a wide celebrity as a religious sanctuary. The Santa Casa, or Holy House, sacred to the Madonna, and said to be her birthplace, the scene of the Annunciation and Incarnation, as well as the place where the holy family found shelter after their return from Egypt, was, as the story goes, transported from Nazareth by the hands of angels to the coast of Dalmatia in 1291, and was afterwards, in 1294, conveyed in the night, in the same miraculous manner, to a laurel grove near Loreto. From this laurel grove, or from Lauretta, the person to whom it belonged, the place received its present name. To afford accommodation to the pilgrims which flocked thither, the foundations of the present town were soon laid. One side of the piazza, in which the sanctuary is situated, is occupied by the convent of the Jesuits, the other by the splendid palace of the governor, built after the design of Bramante. In the middle is the statue of Pope Sixtus V., who, in 1586, fortified the place against the attacks of the Turkish pirates, for whom the treasures of the sanctuary had considerable attractions. This piece of art is the work of Calcagni of Recanati. On the third side of the square stands the church called the Chiesa della Santa Casa. Over the grand entrance is a full-length bronze statue of the Virgin and Child, by Girolamo Lombardo. The chief external ornaments are three superb bronze doors, divided into compartments, with bas-reliefs illustrating events in the history of the Old and New Testaments. These exquisite performances are the work of the sons and pupils of the celebrated Girolamo Lombardo of Siena, and were finished during the pontificate of Paul V. The campanile, designed by Vannutelli, exhibiting a combination of the four orders, is of great height, and is surmounted by an octagonal pyramid, with a bell weighing 22,000 pounds. The great attraction of the church, however, is the Santa Casa, a small brick building of the rudest kind, 13½ English feet high, 27½ in length, and 12½ in breadth. It has a door on the north side, and a window on the west. Over the fireplace is a statue of the Virgin, of Lebanon cedar, black with age, said to be sculptured by St Luke. The statue is resplendent with jewels, and the value of the relics and treasures must be very great. All sorts of offerings, from all classes of worshippers, are to be met with—from the richest jewels to a cannon-ball of the warlike Julius II., or a wedding-dress of the king of Saxony. The marble casing which incloses the Santa Casa is one of the most remarkable monuments of the finest age of art. The design was by Bramante, and the sculptures by Sansovino, Girolamo Lombardo, Bandinelli, Giovanni da Bologna, Guilielmo della Porta, Sangallo, &c. It has four fronts of white marble, and the sculptures are in relief. These wonderful works were for the most part begun, if not finished, by Sansovino. Vasari pronounces his representation of the Annunciation, on the western front, an *opera divina*. The next object of attraction is the hap-