{:en}PRESS RELEASE (14/07/2017)
Sunday 16 lJuly, a Loano, will be celebrated the Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Marian feast with the torchlight procession which will kick off at 9:15 pm.
A festival of ancient tradition, it was celebrated in the early 17th century as the main feast of the Carmelite Fathers in the church that had recently risen together with the convent on Costino Hill. It was the Marquis of Torriglia, Andrea Doria Il, who in 1606 succeeded his dead father, John Andrew I, in governing the county of Loano, who had the Monte Carmelo complex built.
There is news of the feast combined with the procession in some writings of 1723: Don Sebastiano Rocca, provost of St. John the Baptist, granted the Carmelite Fathers to extend the procession from the square placed in front of their church to the one located in front of the “Casotto” of the Doria family, where they lived at particular times of their religious life.
The very fact that he was given the opportunity to extend the procession suggests that it was already celebrated, before, but with a short turn around the churchyard.
However, there is no record of when it originated or even how it was held. It is believed that the Carmelite Fathers started the procession on the feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel when the church was inaugurated, around the end of the first decade of the 17th century.
Today the procession is celebrated in the evening, and the bearers of the Statue of the Virgin Mary, dressed in a gray-brown cape - reminiscent of the Carmelite habit - descend the Monumental Bridge that overtakes the valley of the Berbena stream at the top and reaches the small square in front of Borgo Castello. The procession continues to the little chapel on Via Azzurri d'Italia and returns to the Church of Carmel by crossing the bridge connecting Via Pollupice with the village. Upon reaching the churchyard, the bearers lift the statue three times overhead in a “salute to the sea” that has become traditional at Loano. The procession is accompanied by the band of the’S.M. Immaculate Music Association.{:}
