Sacro Monte della Beata Vergine del Soccorso

This guide to the Sacro Monte della Beata Vergine del Soccorso above Lake Como centers on Agostino Silva, a stucco worker's son from the Val d'Intelvi who spent decades filling fourteen hillside chapels with life-size terracotta figures, working alongside his father and later his own son. Rather than saints, it follows the ordinary farmers, merchants and mothers of the surrounding villages who modeled for apostles, soldiers and mourners at the Crucifixion. It traces the painters, including Carlo Gaffuri, who frescoed the walls around them into one theatrical scene.