Sveta Gora

Sveta Gora is an ancient pilgrimage centre. It is regarded as the most important pilgrimage centre in western Slovenia, and in the past, its reputation extended well beyond the borders of present-day Slovenia. The church was built on the 682-metre-high Skalnica hill after Mary appeared to the shepherdess Urška Ferligoj in 1539, instructing her to tell the people to build a church on the hill and to pray for mercy.

In 1540, the secular authorities granted permission for the church to be built. During the excavation of its foundations, a stone slab decorated with ornaments and the Hail Mary prayer was discovered. It turned out to be part of a church that had already stood on Skalnica in the 14th century, and is believed to have been destroyed during Turkish incursions.

In 1544, the Patriarch of Aquileia, Marino Grimani, gifted the newly built Gothic-Renaissance church a miraculous image of the Mother of God, painted by the Venetian artist Jacob Palma the Elder. In 1565, the spiritual care of the site was entrusted to the Franciscans. However, in 1786, the reformist Emperor Joseph II abolished the pilgrimage route; the church and monastery were sold at auction, and the Franciscans relocated to Gorizia.

They did not return to Sveta Gora until 1901.  The image of the Virgin Mary of Sveta Gora was the second outside of Italy to be canonically crowned by the Vatican Cathedral Chapter—an honor given to images of the Virgin that had been venerated for a long time and were known for their miraculous intercessions. Because of the coronation in 1717, the faithful regard St Mary of Sveta Gora as a Queen. This belief played a key role in the 1793 decision to return the image to Sveta Gora. Pilgrimages increased, and in 1907 Pope Pius X granted the rebuilt church the title of basilica.

During the First World War, however, it was reduced to ruins. Between 1924 and 1928, a Franciscan monastery and a new church were built on Sveta Gora, inspired by the Basilica in Aquileia. The 50-metre-high bell tower holds four large bells—the heaviest weighing 4,335 kilograms—and five smaller ones that mark the time. Since 1996, the monastery has also been home to the Marian Museum, an engaging religious collection that reflects the rich and often turbulent history of the pilgrimage site.