Note 537 — Chapter III · PILGRIMS AND PILGRIMAGES

Especially noteworthy in this respect at the present day is the Church of Santa Maria delle Grazie, near Mantua (in which the famous author of the “Cortegiano,” Baldassare Castiglione, is buried), where life-size, realistic wax figures, wearing real garments or armour, form a continuous series above the arches on both sides of the nave. Each scene commemorates a miraculous intervention of the Virgin: innocents saved at the moment of their execution, the halter breaking, the axe stopped, etc. The “custode” also directs attention to a stuffed animal, dangling from the roof, and which he describes as a “crocodilo” which used to desolate the country.