Pilgrimage church

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

A pilgrimage church (German: Wallfahrtskirche) is a church to which pilgrimages are regularly made, or a church along a pilgrimage route, like the Way of St. James, that is visited by pilgrims.

The Calvary Church in Bonn with its holy stairway

Pilgrimage churches are often located by the graves of saints, or hold portraits to which miraculous properties are ascribed or saintly relics that are safeguarded by the church for their veneration. Such relics may include the bones, books or pieces of clothing of the saints, occasionally also fragments of the cross of Jesus, pieces of the crown of thorns, the nails with which he was fixed to the cross and other similar objects. Pilgrimage churches were also built at places where miracles took place.

List of Roman Catholic pilgrimage churches

Churches are listed in alphabetical order of the sites in or near where they are located.

Austria

Andenken an Birkenstein postcard. University of Dayton Libraries.
Pilgrimage Church of Frauenberg in Ardning
Basilica of the Birth of the Virgin Mary in Mariazell
Mariatrost Basilica in Graz

Brazil

Croatia

  • Trsat, Dalmatia, Croatia: Pilgrimage Shrine of Our Lady of Trsat, Cathedral of St Vitus

Czech Republic

France

Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes

Germany

Vierzehnheiligen
Pilgrimage church of St. John the Baptist (Bussen)
The Apollinaris Church in Remagen
The Pilgrimage Church of Birnau by Lake Constance
Maria, Königin des Friedens, Neviges

Gibraltar

Great Britain

Palestinian Christian Scouts outside the Church of the Nativity, Palestine

Holy Land

Ireland

Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome

Italy

Our Lady of Lebanon

Lebanon

Latvia

Lithuania

Mexico

Guadalupe Basilica postcard. University of Dayton Libraries.

Netherlands

Philippines

Poland

Jasna Góra in Częstochowa
Divine Mercy Sanctuary (Kraków), also known as Łagiewniki

Portugal

Slovakia

Spain

Switzerland

Turkey

Syria

See also