other Catholic prayers, including a prayer for the Pope's intentions. Those who were physically impeded from climbing the stairs could obtain the plenary indulgence by meditating on Christ's passion while at the Stairs and completing the other conditions. As part of the ceremonies opening the Holy Year in 1933, Cardinal Francesco Marchetti Selvaggiani, Vicar of Rome, led a crowd of hundreds in mounting the steps on their knees. Between April 2019 and July 2019, pilgrims were permitted to ascend the stairs kneeling on the original uncovered marble steps for the first time in almost 300 years. As a result, visitor numbers during this time increased threefold from the usual, and long lines formed at the entrance. Visitors Martin Luther climbed the steps on his knees in 1510. As he did so, he repeated the Our Father on each step. It was said, by doing this work one could "redeem a soul from purgatory." But when Luther arrived at the top he could not suppress his doubt, "Who knows whether this is true?" Charles Dickens, after visiting the Scala Sancta in 1845, wrote: "I never, in my life, saw anything at once so ridiculous and so unpleasant as this sight." He described the scene of pilgrims ascending the staircase on their knees as a "dangerous reliance on outward observances". Copies of the Scala Sancta Imitations of the Scala Sancta were erected in several locations and indulgences were often attached to them: Rome, Borgo Santo Spirito: the stairs lead to the Church of Santi Michele e Magno. Ducal palace, Mantua, Italy: 1614-5 by Ferdinando Gonzaga, then a cardinal, later Duke of Mantua. Sacro Monte di Varallo, Piedmont, Italy Saint Paul Church, Campli, Italy (): Pope Clement XIV acknowledged Campli in 1772 with the ownership of the Holy Stairs. San Girolamo, Reggio Emilia Veroli, Italy Basilica of Sainte Anne d'Auray, France () Kalvarienbergkirche, Bad Tölz, Germany () Kreuzbergkirche, Bonn, Germany (): Clemens August of Bavaria, ordered the retrofitting of this church with a "Scala Sancta" according to the plans of the Baroque architect Balthasar Neumann. It was constructed between 1745 and 1751. Františkánsky kostol Nepoškvrneného Počatia Panny Márie, Malacky, Slovakia Church of Our Lady and Saint Charlemagne in Karlov, Prague, Bohemia, Czech Republic (1708-11) Loretto Chapel in Brno, Moravia, Czech Republic Chapel of the Holy Stairs in the Monastery on the Mountain of the Mother of God in Dolní Hedeč, Králíky, Eastern Bohemia,