Top of the World
The sanctuary of the seven little churches was built by Vincenzo Scamozzi, between 1605 and 1615, on commission of the Venetian nobles Duodo. In the same period they built six chapels on the slope of the hill, and the entrance arch or Roman gate, recalls the pilgrimage to the Roman basilicas with the inscription: Romanis basilicis pares. The seventh church, the Sanctuary of St. George, marks the point of arrival of the sacred way, and the place where it is said there is a ghost. Here were moved, three bodies of martyrs and their relics, including that of St. Valentine, patron saint of lovers, and here every year on February 14, many come to have the blessing of small golden keys.The legend tells of a woman: Mariangela, who at the end '800 beginning '900, of her you only know the name, was madly in love with a young man, promised to another woman. Every day in the hope that her dream of love would come true, the woman brought a white lily to the sanctuary of San Giorgio. In spite of the prayers and the lilies the young man got married. Mariangela, for the pain climbed the seventh church and committed suicide, we do not know if with poison, or throwing herself from the mountain. It is therefore said that her ghost, wanders in incorporeal form producing a mist, around the church, and the case is that almost always this is cloaked by fog. The fact remains that this sanctuary is beautiful to see, however, both for its location on this hill, both because the six churches are home to valuable altarpieces of Jacopo Palma the younger.
