Dan R.
Yelp
I really didn't know what to expect from Loreta. Travel guide descriptions were often all over the place, citing it as a must-see, but also a mixed bag of a museum. Which it is. After visiting here, it's impossible to pigeonhole Loreta as one thing. Which is a long-winded way of saying that, yes, what you've read is accurate, even if it seems confusing and a bit unhelpful even. Loreta is many things, and easily defined is not one of them.
That won't stop me from trying, of course. After purchasing a ticket and photography pass, I wandered around the cloister, taking in a variety of religious artwork along the perimeter, getting a good look at the iconic, baroque clock tower looming overhead, the courtyard statues, and the center shrine to the Virgin Mary. It was all very beautiful and very old, but feeling unappreciative (and guilty for feeling unappreciative), I couldn't help thinking to myself, "Is this it?" As I made the full trip around the cloister, I soon saw signs for the Treasury upstairs. "No, this was not it," I assured myself. I was in for more.
This second floor was more of a proper museum, with your glass-cased relics and Jesus sketches and gift shops and whatnot. But there was one room in particular that alone was worth the visit to Loreta. I swear, it was like stepping into that room at the end of 2001: A Space Odyssey, except that it glowed this galactic black instead of the film's signature white. Hard to explain, but it felt like I was somewhere final, somewhere special, somewhere sacred. This room was filled with a ton of priceless artifacts, like diamond-encrusted papal mitres and gloves (#popeswag) and this ridiculously beautiful ostensory know as the Prague Sun. Fittingly, I helplessly gravitated towards this spiky trophy, made of - count 'em - 6,222 diamonds. Alone in this room, I felt a bit like Indiana Jones finding that golden idol at the beginning of Raiders of the Lost Ark. It was an unreal collection and this monstrance was clearly the star attraction.
So, after all was said and done, what is Loreta? Yeah, it's a museum, an impressive place of pilgrimage, with beautiful scenery and a stunning collection of jewels - all of those things. But it's a bit of a hidden gem itself, not as immediately stately as some of Prague's other major landmarks, but one that demands your patience and attention and humility in order to fully appreciate it.