LORENZO MARQUES, or LourençoMarques, the chief place, and indeed the only European settlement, in the district of its own name in the Portuguese province of Mozambique in south-eastern Africa, is situated on Delagoa Bay, at the mouth of the Lorenzo Marques or English River, in 25° 58' S. lat. and 32° 30' E. long. At the time of Mr Erskine’s visit in 1871 it was a poor place, with narrow streets, fairly good flat-roofed houses, grass huts, decayed forts, and rusty cannon, enclosed by a wall 6 feet high recently erected and protected by bastions at intervals. In 1878 Governor Castelho returned the white population of all the district (whose area is estimated at 210,000 square miles) as 458, and the natives as from 50,000 to 80,000. A commission sent by the Government in 1876 to drain the marshy land near the settlement, to plant the blue gum tree, and to build a hospital and church, only partly accomplished its task, and other commissions have succeeded it. In 1878-79 a survey was taken for a railway from Lorenzo Marques to the Transvaal (see Βol. da Soc. de Geogr. de Lisboa, 1880), and the completion of this enterprise will make the settlement (which already possesses the best harbour on the African coast between the Cape and Zanzibar) a place of considerable importance. It became a regular port of call for the steamers of the British India Steam Navigation Company in 1879, and for those of the Donald Currie line in 1880. Since 1879 it is also a station on the telegraph line between Aden and South Africa. Both Germany and England maintain consular agents in the settlement.
See Delagoa Bay, vol. vii. p. 40; and Lobo de Bulhaes, Les Colonies portugaises (Lisbon, 1878).
LORETO, a city in the province and circondario of Ancona, Italy, is situated some 15 miles by rail south-west from Ancona on the Ancona-Foggia railway, 16 miles north-east from Macerata, and 3 from the sea. It lies upon the right bank of the Musone, at some distance from the railway station, on a hill-side commanding splendid views from the Apennines to the Adriatic. The city itself consists of little more than one long narrow street, lined with booths for the sale of rosaries, medals, crucifixes, and similar objects, the manufacture of which is the sole industry of the place. The population in 1871 was only 1241; but, when the suburbs Montereale, Porta Marina, and Casette are included, the population is given as 4755, that of the commune being 8083. The number of pilgrims is said to amount to about 500,000 annually. The principal buildings, occupying the four sides of the piazza, are the college of the Jesuits, the Palazzo Apostolico (designed by Bramante), and the architecturally insignificant cathedral church of the Holy House (Chiesa della Casa Santa). The handsome façade of the church was erected under Sixtus V., who fortified Loreto and gave it the privileges of a town (1586); his colossal statue stands in the middle of the flight of steps in front. Over the principal doorway is a life-size bronze statue of the Virgin and Child by Girolamo Lombardo; the three superb bronze doors executed under Paul V. (1605-21) are also by Lombardo, his sons, and his pupils. ' The richly decorated campanile, by Vanvitelli, is of great height; the principal bell, presented by Leo X. in 1516, weighs 11 tons. The interior of the church has mosaics by Domenichino and Guido Reni, a beautiful bronze font and other works of art; but the chief object of interest is the Holy House itself, ...which occupies a central place. It is a plain brick building, measuring 28 feet by 12J, and 13£ feet in height; it has a door on the north side and a window on the west; and a niche contains a small black image of the Virgin and Child, in Lebanon cedar, and richly adorned with jewels. St Luke is alleged to have been the sculptor; its workmanship suggests the latter half of the 15th century. Around the Santa Casa is a lofty marble screen, designed by Bramante, and executed under Popes Leo X., Clement VIL, and Paul III., by Andrea Sansovino, Girolamo Lombardo, Bandinelli, Guglielmo della Porta, and others. The four sides represent the Annunciation, the Nativity, the Arrival of the Santa Casa at Loreto, and the Nativity of the Virgin respectively. The treasury of the church contains a large variety of rich and curious votive offerings.
The legend of the Holy House, by which Loreto became what has been not inappropriately called the Christian Mecca, seems to have sprung up, how is not exactly known, at the close of the crusading period. It is briefly referred to in the Italia Illustrata of Flavius Blondus, secretary to Popes Eugenius I V.,Nicholas V.,Calixtus III., and Pius II. (ob. 1464); it is to be read in all its fulness in the “Redemptoris mundi Matris Ecclesiae Lauretana historia,” by a certain Teremannus, contained in the Opera Omnia (1576) of Baptista Mantuanus. According to this narrative the house at Nazareth in which Mary had been born and brought up, had received the annunciation, and had lived during the childhood of Jesus and after His ascension, was converted into a church by the apostles, and worship continued to be held in it until the fall of the kingdom of Jerusalem. Threatened with destruction by the Turks, it was carried by angels through the air and deposited (1291) in the first instance on a hill at Tersato in Dalmatia (some miles inland from Zengg), where an appearance of the Virgin and numerous miraculous cures attested its sacredness, which was confirmed by investigations made at Nazareth by messengers from the governor of Dalmatia. In 1294 the angels carried it across the Adriatic to a wood near Recanati; from this wood (lauretum), or from the name of its proprietrix (Laureta), the chapel derived the name which it still retains (“sacellum gloriosae Virginis in Laureto”). From this spot it was afterwards (1295) removed to the present hill, one other slight adjustment being required to fix it in its actual site. Bulls in favour of the shrine at Loreto were issued by Sixtus IV. in 1491 and by Julius II. in 1507, the last alluding to the translation of the house with some caution (“ut pie creditur et fama est ”). The recognition of the sanctuary by subsequent pontiffs has already been alluded to. In the end of the 17th century Innocent XII. appointed a “missa cum officio proprio” for the feast of the Translation of the Holy House, and the Festum Translationis Almae Domus Lauretanae B. Μ. V. is still enjoined in the Spanish Breviary as a “duplex majus” (December 10). In the sixth lesson it is stated that “the house in which the Virgin was born, having been consecrated to the divine mysteries, was by the ministry of angels removed from the power of the infidels first to Dalmatia and afterwards to the Lauretan field during the pontificate of Celestine V. That it is the identical house in which the Word was made flesh and dwelt among men is attested by papal documents, by the veneration of all the world, by continued miracles, and by the grace of heavenly blessings.”
