Loyola sanctuary basilica
— a dome the green hills hold like a cup.
Not only on a wall.
Loyola sanctuary basilica, on ceramic.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
Each tile ships in a kraft box, tied with cream ribbon, with a handwritten note from the studio if you'd like to add one.
Three or five different vistas, hung together — a chapter of places you've been, or want to go.
“A baroque sanctuary in a quiet green valley of Gipuzkoa, built around the stone house where Ignatius of Loyola was born in 1491. Carlo Fontana designed the basilica from Rome; construction began in 1689. The dome reaches about sixty-five metres and was finished in the eighteenth century. The Holy House sits below it under glass, kept as it was. Around the complex, the Urola valley stays the green that only the Basque country keeps in August. from the studio
The place, in three passes.
The Sanctuary of Loyola sits on the floor of the Urola valley in Azpeitia, in the Basque province of Gipuzkoa, about forty kilometres southwest of San Sebastián. The complex was built around the Casa Torre de Loyola, the stone tower-house where Iñigo López de Loyola — later Ignatius of Loyola — was born in 1491. The Italian architect Carlo Fontana designed the basilica from Rome; construction began in 1689 under Carlos II. The dome rises about sixty-five metres above the church floor.
Fontana designed the basilica as a circular plan under a high drum dome, set behind a symmetrical baroque façade in dark grey Aizpea limestone. The Holy House, the original tower-house of the Loyola family, is preserved at the centre of the complex and accessed from the courtyard. Its upper room, called the Conversion Chapel, marks the spot where Ignatius recovered from his Pamplona wound in 1521 and began the reading that turned him toward religious life. The Jesuit order has held the site since 1681.
The basilica and Holy House are open daily with free entry to the church; the Holy House and museum carry a small fee. Mass is celebrated in Basque and Spanish. The 31 July feast of Saint Ignatius draws the largest crowds and includes a procession through the village. Azpeitia is reached by car from San Sebastián in about forty-five minutes or by regional bus. The town has cafés along the river and a small museum of the Basque rural railway.
