The patroness of Loreto is Our Lady of Loreto, venerated in the Basilica della Santa Casa, one of the most important and most visited Marian shrines of the Catholic Church: her feast, in the Catholic calendar, falls on 10 December, the day on which Marche Day is also celebrated.
In the Marche and Umbria regions, there is a living tradition of lighting great fires, the «focaracci» or «fogaró della Venuta», on the night between 9 and 10 December, to symbolically light the path to the Holy House. On 12 September 1920, the feast for the proclamation of Our Lady of Loreto as «Patroness of Aviators» took place in Loreto, decreed by an apostolic brief of Pope Benedict XV dated 24 March of that same year. The basilica is also linked to the tradition of the Litany of Loreto, approved by Pope Sixtus V in 1587. The town also holds the Apostolic Palace and the Vanvitelli bell tower.
