Situated in a grandiose natural amphitheatre, 1,200 metres above the sea, a short distance from the city of Biella (20 minutes), together with the sanctuary, this is considered the most important place of Marian worship in the alpine area. The Sacro Monte (literally "sacred mount") was built between 1617-1620, on the initiative of the Cappuccino Friar, Padre Fedele da San Germano and supported by the Savoy family who financed extensive transformation operations. To the left of the Sanctuary's monument complex is the Sacro Monte, a UNESCO World Heritage Site and recently established as a Special Reserve by the Region of Piedmont. The intervention by various communities around Biella was a determining factor in the construction, between the 1600s and the 1700s, of the twelve chapels dedicated to the life of the Virgin and populated with life-sized, multi-coloured terracotta statues.