Bazilika Navštívení Panny Marie (Hejnice) Basilica

The Church of the Visitation of the Virgin Mary in Hejnice is one of the oldest Marian pilgrimage places in the lithomeric diocese. It is a Baroque church at a Franciscan monastery, registered as a national cultural monument of the Czech Republic. Parts from the turn of the 13th and 14th centuries are preserved in its construction.

The origin of the pilgrimage site is attributed by legend to a poor craftsman - a retreader and a collector from nearby Luz (now part of Raspenava). It was said that one day he fell asleep in a flock forest under three lashes on the banks of the Shift, and saw angels sitting on branches in a dream. One of them called him to bring to the place a picture of the Mother of God for all the travellers. The craftsman bought a wooden statue in Zittava and placed it in a tree with respect. According to tradition, his sick wife and child recovered. The legend dates this event to 1159 or 1211 - individual sources do not exactly match.

As soon as the miracle news spread, the pilgrims began to flow into place. Around 1211, a wooden chapel was supposed to be established, and later the construction of a stone chapel in 1252 or the continuation of a wooden shrine. Around 1500, the faithful still worshipped little Madonna on the stump. Over time, the increasing number of pilgrims required the continuous expansion of the sanctuary.

At the end of the 13th century, a member of the House of Biberstejns who held the Frydlant estate had built a stone Gothic church. Its parts from the turn of the 13th and 14th centuries are still visible in the temple. The church is first documented in writing in 1346. In 1469, the papal Legate Rudolf granted pardons to the temple, and in 1498 he was ordained by the Miesen Bishop John of Salhauzen.

But history has turned against a Catholic cult. After the Bibersteins, the estate belonged to Emperor Ferdinand I, who sold it to the Protestant family of Redern in 1558. The new masters followed the law at the time and converted churches into Protestant ritus. However, they closed the hedgehog church, even though the pilgrims were begging for a closed door. Even the Emperor Rudolf II's request from 1591 did not change the situation. In 1609 Kateřina took the statue of the Mother of God from Redern to the castle in Liberec, which burned down in 1615. The statue did not succumb to the flames and was returned. After the Battle of the White Mountain in 1620, the Rederns left Bohemia.

The renewal came in 1622 when the warlord Albrecht of Valdstejn bought the estate and opened the church again. After his murder in 1634, they took over the estate in 1636 by the Gallas. It was during their period that Hejnice reached the peak of fame - some pilgrims were allegedly visited by up to seven thousand believers.

The central object of worship remains the stone gothic statue of the Virgin Mary with Jesus, called the Smiley Mother (Latin Mater Formosa), height 38 centimeters. The pilgrimage from Prague to Staré Byslav contains eleven chapels, one of which is dedicated to the Virgin Mary of Hejnicki; they were built in 1674- 1690.

Although the church is a building three-water basilica, the papal promotion to the basilica minor has never been completed - the process has remained suspended at diplomatic level.