Sacro monte di Arona, Baroque religious sanctuary in Arona, Italy

Sacro Monte di Arona is a baroque religious complex built on a hilltop overlooking Lake Maggiore in northern Italy. It comprises several chapels and a main church that form a unified worship space.

Construction began in 1614 under the direction of Cardinal Federico Borromeo, though only three of the fifteen planned chapels were ever finished. The project faced repeated interruptions that prevented its completion.

The name San Carlone, used locally for the 28-metre copper statue, shows how popular devotion adopted the colossus as the site's emblem. Inside the sanctuary, behind the main altar, the original room of San Carlo has been reassembled with furnishings saved from Napoleon's destruction of the nearby Rocca Borromea, including his death mask and sedan chair.

From the piazzale in front of the sanctuary church, a staircase leads up to the tall granite base of the copper colossus; an internal stair inside the hollow statue continues to its head. The sanctuary stands on the hill behind Arona above Lake Maggiore, and the three surviving chapels lie along the devotional route below it.

The 28-metre copper statue of San Carlo, known as San Carlone, is hollow and visitors climb an internal staircase up to the head. Completed in 1698 by Siro Zanella of Pavia and Bernardo Falconi of Lugano, it is exceeded in height among metal statues only by the Statue of Liberty.