Garda Sanctuaries Prepare for the 2000 Holy Year Pilgrims
Everything is ready in the Garda sanctuaries to welcome pilgrims in the year 2000, which, in addition to the normal tourist influx, is expected to see an outpouring of visitors seeking places of prayer and spiritual renewal, perhaps less crowded than the more famous sanctuaries.
The Jubilee Churches of the Garda Territory
The dioceses of Brescia, Verona, Mantova, and Trento have identified in the Garda area the “Jubilee Churches,” those churches where it is possible to fulfill the purification rites required for the Holy Year.
In Brescia, these include the Santuario della Madonna del Carmine di San Felice del Benaco and the Santuario Madonna di Montecastello di Tignale; in Trento, the Santuario della Madonna delle Grazie di Arco; in Verona, the Convento Santuario della Madonna del Frassino di Peschiera del Garda and the Santuario Basilica della Madonna della Corona di Spiazzi di Montebaldo; in Mantova, the Santuario della Beata Vergine Maria delle Grazie di Curtatone.
Places of Faith and Artistic Testimonies
It will also be an opportunity to discover sites that, distributed along the perimeter of Garda, represent a constellation of testimonies of the faith of the lake’s people, expressed through architecture and painting.
The monographic “Garda Pocket” titled “The Places of the Spirit,” produced by the Comunità del Garda and distributed in tens of thousands of copies both through targeted campaigns partnered with Italian and international magazines and during major international and sector-specific tourism fairs, as well as through national and diocesan promotion channels, has been appreciated as an essential, concise yet comprehensive, practically useful informational tool.
Digital Resources and Practical Information
Now, the Garda sanctuaries are also accessible online, available on the official website of Lake Garda www.lagodigarda.it, with all the information needed to plan a journey to the “places of the spirit.”
