Croatia – A destination for millions of pilgrims

Croatia is a destination for faith tourism with a number of shrines, visited each year by millions of pilgrims. In the direct vicinity of Zagreb is Marija Bistrica with its shrine dedicated to the Virgin Mary, where pilgrims have been coming for over 300 years now. The first written documents relating to Marija Bistrica date from back in the year 1209, while the worship of the Mother of God of Bistrica started in the 16th century when a statue of the Virgin Mary became known by its miraculous healings and answered prayers. Nowadays the shrine consists of St. Mary‘s church, the open-air church of the Blessed Aloysius Stepinac and the remarkable Way of the Cross – the Calvary. Marija Bistrica is also the heart of Croatian honey and gingerbread making.

In Ludbreg, a small town in the Podravina region not far from the Baroque town of Varaždin is the unique shrine dedicated to the Most Precious Blood of Jesus. The Ludbreg parish of the Holy Trinity is mentioned in historical sources in 1334, while the church itself was constructed in 1410 – it was a year later that the priest leading holy mass noticed true blood in the chalice and notified the Vatican of the event. Ludbreg was proclaimed a shrine in 1512 by Pope Leo X.

In the heart of Split-Dalmatia County, in Solin, the Virgin Mary has been worshiped from as far back as the 6th century. The Croatian Queen Jelena built a basilica there in the 10th century with naves and four-cornered columns in which the coronations of Croatian Kings were then held. In Sinj, the centre of the Cetina region, is the shrine of Our Lady of Sinj, of which it is believed that she was crucial in the 1715 victory over the Turkish army. Ever since then this triumphant battle has been marked every year by the renowned chivalric tournament – the Alka of Sinj. In the environs of Knin is the shrine dedicated to Our Lady of Biskupija, in the foundations of which five churches are to be found, dating from the period of the Croatian kings from the 9th to 11th centuries. The area was a religious and church centre in the medieval Croatian state.

On Rijeka‘s Trsat is the ancient shrine to the Mother of Mercy, the Mother of God of Trsat, which is arrived at by a climb of 561 steps. The church of the Mother of God of Trsat was built in 1419. Later Croatian Ban (vicegerent) Duke Nikola Frankopan I built a larger church, in which Franciscan monks have lived since 1453.

The youngest shrine in Croatia is that dedicated to St. Joseph in Dubovac near Karlovac, proclaimed in 1987.