Šiluva Pilgrimage Site

Šiluva is one of Europe's oldest Marian apparition sites. According to tradition, the Virgin Mary appeared here in 1608 — over 250 years before the famous apparitions at Lourdes. This makes Šiluva one of the earliest Church-recognized Marian sites in Europe and Lithuania's most important Catholic pilgrimage destination. The pilgrimage complex includes the grand Basilica of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, a chapel built on the site of the apparition, and a modern pilgrimage center. Each September, the Feast of the Nativity of Mary draws tens of thousands of pilgrims from across Lithuania and neighboring countries. The site's significance deepened during the Soviet era, when pilgrimages to Šiluva became acts of cultural and spiritual resistance.