20 Euro - Franciscus Pontifical Shrine of the House of Loreto

The Holy House of Loreto — a stone structure venerated as the dwelling of the Virgin Mary from Nazareth — has been a pilgrimage destination since the late 13th century, when it was reportedly transported to the Italian Adriatic coast. The translocation story, almost certainly a pious legend obscuring a more prosaic physical dismantling and reconstruction by the Angeli family of Epirus, did nothing to diminish its draw; by the 16th century, Loreto ranked among the most visited shrines in Christendom.

Francis formally designated the site a pontifical shrine in 2019 — three years after this coin's issue, which anticipated or accompanied the renewed institutional attention he was directing toward Marian pilgrimage sites.