Casa Santa

Casa Santa is the oldest and most sacred spot inside Prague's Loreto complex in Hradčany — a small chapel tucked into the middle of the cloister, around which the rest of the sanctuary grew over time. It gave the whole site its name, because it's a faithful replica of the house in Nazareth where, according to tradition, Mary lived and the Annunciation took place. Legend has it that the original house was miraculously carried to Loreto in Italy, and copies of it, built to match that Italian model, then spread across Catholic Europe.

Who built the Prague Santa Casa?

The chapel was commissioned by Countess Benigna Kateřina Lobkowicz, who laid its foundation stone on 3 June 1626. She hired Giovanni Battista Orsi, an Italian architect working in Vienna, to design it. Construction took several years, and the finished chapel was consecrated on 25 March 1631 by the Archbishop of Prague, Cardinal Ernst Adalbert von Harrach. The date wasn't chosen at random — 25 March is the feast of the Annunciation, the very event the Santa Casa commemorates.

What does the exterior look like?

The plain brick structure consecrated in 1631 stayed fairly modest for its first three decades. The richly decorated façade visitors see today was added only in the 1660s and 1670s. The stucco reliefs were carved by the Italian sculptor Giovanni Battista Cometa and paid for by Countess Elizabeth Apollonia Kolowrat. They depict scenes from the life of Mary — among them the Annunciation, the Nativity and the Assumption — set alongside statues of Old Testament prophets placed in niches between the pilasters.

What's inside the chapel?

Inside, a silver grille splits the Santa Casa into two sections, and the atmosphere is deliberately more intimate and dimly lit than the rest of the complex, in keeping with the idea of recreating a humble house from Nazareth. At its centre stands the miraculous statue of Our Lady of Loreto, carved from lime wood as a copy of the original cedar-wood figure. Since 1671 the statue has been set in an elaborately wrought silver frame bearing the Kolowrat coat of arms — the family's second major contribution to the chapel, after funding the façade. Around it are seventeenth-century reliquaries, candlesticks and lamps, while surviving patches of bare brick wall carry frescoes painted by F. Kunz.

Why does the Santa Casa sit at the centre of a much bigger complex?

The chapel came first — everything else at Loreto, including the surrounding Church of the Nativity and the arcaded cloister with its side chapels, was built up around it over the following decades of the 17th and 18th centuries. That's why the Santa Casa is literally the heart of the sanctuary: pilgrims still walk the cloister that encircles it before stepping inside.

Frequently asked questions

How is the Casa Santa different from the Church of the Nativity in the same complex? They're two separate buildings within one site. The Casa Santa is the oldest, central chapel — a replica of the house in Nazareth — standing in the middle of the cloister. The Church of the Nativity is a larger, separate church added later, directly next to the chapel.

When was the chapel built? The foundation stone was laid on 3 June 1626, and it was consecrated on 25 March 1631.

Who paid for its construction and decoration? Countess Benigna Kateřina Lobkowicz funded the original construction; Countess Elizabeth Apollonia Kolowrat later paid for the façade and the silver frame around the statue of Our Lady.

What's the most valuable object inside? The statue of Our Lady of Loreto in its silver frame from 1671, venerated by pilgrims as miraculous for nearly four centuries.