Explore Religious Heritage Across Europe

Basilica of the Virgin Mary, also called the Slovene (Marian) National Sanctuary, was built between 1889 and 1900 and is the main pilgrimage centre in Slovenia, visited by about 400,000 people a year.

The Basilica of the Virgin Protectress is a church located in Ptujska Gora, a colony grouped on a hill. Built between the 14th and 15th centuries, it is considered one of the most beautiful Gothic churches in Slovenia.

The Basilica of the Visitation is a baroque church built between 1715 and 1723. The basilica stands on a hill of Wambierzyce, often called "Silesian Jerusalem". In the 12th century, a miraculous figure of the Mother of God was placed there, bringing many pilgrims. From 1263, a wooden church is built on the hill.

The Basilica of the Sacred Mountain is located in St. Gora, a sacred site since the Middle Ages. In 1540, an anonymous artist painted an image of the Mother of God with the child who quickly acquired a miraculous reputation and became the target of many pilgrimages. The present church was built in 1675-1698 and is inspired by the Italian Renaissance.

The royal papal basilica of San Francesco di Paola is a basilica of Naples. Built between 1816 and 1846, it is considered one of the most important examples of neoclassical architecture in Italy.

Considered one of the most beautiful testimonies of Romanesque architecture in Burgundy, a recent renovation completed in 2007 highlights this jewel built in the 12th century on the ruins of an abbey founded in the 8th century to protect the relics of the martyrs Saint Andoche, Saint Thyrse and Saint Felix.

The Basilica of San Giovanni Maggiore is a 17th-century Baroque church in the city centre of Naples. Its interior is a precious testimony of the city’s main historical-artistic periods.

Santa Maria del Carmine Maggiore is one of the largest basilicas in Naples and a fine example of Neapolitan Baroque style. The church was founded in the 13th century by Carmelite friars who had been expelled from the Holy Land during the Crusades, and who probably arrived in the Bay of Naples on Amalfi ships. The present facade dates from 1766 and was designed by Giovanni del Gaizo to replace the old one, which had been ruined by lightning and above all by the earthquake of 1456. Although it was built at the same time as the church, the bell tower is first mentioned in 1439. It was damaged and rebuilt several times and took on its present appearance in the first half of the 17th century.

The basilica-sanctuary Madonna delle Lacrime is a Marian sanctuary erected in memory of the miraculous tearing of a plaster effigy representing the Virgin Mary in 1953. The work was designed in 1957 by the French architects Michel Andrault and Pierre Parat following an international competition, but the structural works are by the engineer Riccardo Morandi. Built between 1966 and 1994, the church was elevated to the status of a minor basilica by John Paul II in 2002.

The Basilica-Sanctuary of Maria Santissima Annunziata, dating from the 13th century, is an important Marian shrine in western Sicily. On 20 November 1270, the church hosted for a few days the remains of Louis IX of France (1226-1270), who died in Tunis during the Eighth Crusade. The church was enlarged in the 18th century to its present form on a project by the Trapani architect Giovanni Biagio Amico.