Šiluva Basilica

Šiluva holds a special place in Lithuanian Catholic tradition as the site of one of Europe's earliest recorded Marian apparitions. In 1608, the Virgin Mary is said to have appeared weeping on a rock in a field, lamenting that the site where her Son was once worshipped had been turned to other uses during the Reformation. Today, two grand churches mark the sacred site — the Renaissance-Baroque basilica and the Chapel of the Apparition built over the rock where Mary appeared. The September pilgrimage to Šiluva draws tens of thousands of Lithuanian Catholics and was a powerful act of defiance during the Soviet anti-religious campaigns.