“ 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 contains a large variety of rich and curious votive offerings. The architectural design is finer than the details of the sculpture. The choir apse is decorated with modern German frescoes, which are somewhat out of place.
The legend of the Holy House 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 IV., Nicholas V., Calixtus III. and Pius II. (ob. 1464) ; it is to be read in all its fullness 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. ”