Of the nine holy mountains included in the list of Unesco World Heritage sites in Piemonte, five are in the Lago Maggiore/Ossola region.

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This is because in the sixteenth century the Catholic Church feared the consequences of the Protestant Reformation sweeping across Europe from the North. 

Just as the Cadorna Line was built four centuries later to protect against military invasion, this network of holy mountains provided a spiritual line of defence against foreign influence.

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A holy mountain (sacro monte) typically comprises chapels, often dedicated to saints, and shrines forming the Stations of the Cross (Via Crucis).

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The aim was to emphasise the role of the church and to educate and inform the local populace through the use of images, sometimes, as on Orta's Sacro Monte, through a series of striking 3D dioramas designed to strike fear into the hearts of believers and keep them on the straight and narrow.