Sacro Monte (Sacred Mountain) is the finest example of history and art in the Varese area. In July 2003, it was recognised by Unesco as a World Heritage Site as the “cultural landscape of the Sacri Monti (Sacred Mountains) of Piedmont and Lombardy”.
Sacro Monte has always been a place of pilgrimage and popular with other visitors; its complex includes the Via Sacra (holy road), a cobbled devotional road of about 2 km that passes by fourteen chapels, all different from each other and perfectly integrated into the surrounding natural setting, each dedicated to a Mystery of the Rosary. The culminating point of the Via Sacra is the Sanctuary of Santa Maria del Monte, which houses, on the High Altar, the 15th Mystery of the Rosary: Coronation of the Blessed Virgin Mary and the Romanesque Crypt, which can be visited with a guided tour, and an inhabited village, which fascinates the visitor with its characteristic shady alleyways and steep stairways, lantern-lit archways, and numerous Art Nouveau villas.