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The origins of the city of Loreto date from the first half of the 14th century, contemporaneous with the rise and spread of the Loretan cult of the Virgin. The cult derived from the claim that the house of the Virgin (the Santa Casa) was miraculously transported from Nazareth to Loreto. The sanctuary of Santa Maria (begun 1469) was built over the Holy House and attracted numerous pilgrims.
In 1509 Pope Julius II commissioned Donato Bramante to construct a rectangular structure within the basilica of Santa Maria to enclose the Santa Casa. Bramante gave the small, humble house (c. 9.5 x 4.0 m internally) an elegant marble shell. He used fluted Corinthian half columns resting on pedestals and supporting an entablature, cornice, and balustrade to articulate the main storey. The structure has two doorways on each of its long (north and south) sides, with an altar set against one of the short ends. Work continued after Bramante's death in 1514, the richly perforated architectural revetment being installed only in 1532-34; the balustrade was added in 1537.
The photo shows one of the two short ends (the back side).
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