Kostel Panny Marie Sněžné (Krásná Lípa) Church

The pilgrimage church of Our Lady of the Snow stands in Sněžná near Krásná Lípa, in German Schnauhübel, on a spur above the Křinice River. It is a Baroque building whose origins date back to 1732. From this location there is a view of the eastern part of Bohemian Switzerland. The church is protected as a cultural monument of the Czech Republic.

Pilgrims came here already in the first half of the eighteenth century. In 1732, the married couple Johann Christoph and Anna Liebsch had a spacious chapel built on the top of the spur above the Křinice valley. It became a sought-after pilgrimage site, and therefore a nave was added to it in 1847. Only then did the chapel acquire the appearance of a church.

Pilgrims initially came here on all Marian feast days. From the nineteenth century onward, the pilgrimage was limited to a single day, August 5th, when the feast of Our Lady of the Snow is celebrated. In 1851, a parish was canonically established here. The church became a parish church, and to the west of it a cemetery was created. Until the beginning of the twentieth century, the pilgrimage was heavily visited.

After 1945, the pilgrimage tradition was interrupted. It began to be renewed gradually only at the end of the twentieth century, when the interior of the church was also restored. The exterior is in relatively good condition in the twenty-first century.

The building is the work of builder Zacharias Hoffmann from Lipová, who built it according to his own plans. The church is single-naved and rectangular. The nave is followed by a narrower rectangular presbytery, that is the space around the main altar, terminated by a semicircle. On the northern side stands a rectangular sacristy. The outer walls are articulated by lisene frames, that is shallow vertical strips, and rectangular windows that end at the top with a gentle arch.

The presbytery is vaulted with a barrel vault with lunettes. The nave has a flat ceiling and a wooden gallery that runs along three sides. The furnishings of the church date from the nineteenth century. Near the presbytery there is a sandstone gravestone with relief decoration from 1732.