Basilica of Monte Berico

The origins of the Sanctuary of Monte Berico are connected with two apparitions of the Madonna to Vincenza Pasini, a woman who was taking food to her husband who worked on the hill: the first on 7 March, 1426, the second on 1 August, 1428. The Madonna promised that the plague would end and asked for a church to be erected in that spot. So in 1428, in just a few months, the first late-Gothic church and a little cenoby were built to house a religious community dedicated to looking after pilgrims.
After a short period in which the church was governed by the Friars of St Brigitte, the whole place was handed over to the Servants of Mary (1435), still the custodians today.
Since then the Sanctuary has undergone a series of modifications. From 1493 to 1498 the convent was built up, and the church was enlarged by Lorenzo da Bologna, according to a design by Palladio; in 1590-91 more development work was carried out but no trace remains of this because it was demolished in 1687; in 1703 the Baroque church by Carlo Borella was built; between 1825 and 1852 the new campanile was built on the design of Antonio Piovene, which destroyed the choir by Lorenzo da Bologna and the sacristy next to it was also damaged; in 1860-61 Giovanni Miglioranza's facade for the first church was re-built. The first church had five spans covered with cross vaults, supported by columns covered in marble in the 19th century. "St John and the Image of the Madonna" in the lunettes of the entrance door is the work of Pietro Pala.
Borella's church has a plan of a cross inside a square, and at the end of each arm there are four smaller rooms covered by canopy roofs. The three outer walls (the fourth is the side of the first church) all have the same facade.
Monte Berico: the works of art
The Pilgrimage - Liturgical notes

Text approved by the Arts Office of the Diocese of Vicenza

Address: viale X Giugno, 87 - tel. 0444 320998 - fax 0444 326464
eMail: Monte Berico@MonteBerico.it URL: http://www.MonteBerico.it/

Weekday Masses 7.00, 8.00, 9.00, 10.00, 11.00, 15.30, 17.00
(summer-time 7.00, 8.00, 9.00, 10.00, 11.00, 16.30, 18.00)
Pre-Feast-day Masses: 17.00
Feast-day Masses: 7.00, 8.00, 9.00, 10.00, 11.00, 12.00, 15.00, 16.00, 17.00, 18.00
(summer-time 7.00, 8.00, 9.00, 10.00, 11.00, 12.00, 16.00, 17.00, 18.00, 19.00)
Rosary: 16.30
Confessions: 7.00-11.30 and 15.00-17.00
(summer-time: 7.00-11.30 and 15.30-18.00)

Opening times: weekdays 6.15-12.30 and 14.30-19.30; Feast days 6.15-20.00