The Basilica of Our Lady of Hungary ( hu, Magyarok Nagyasszonya-bazilika) is a

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

parish church of the

Diocese of Vác In church governance, a diocese or bishopric is the ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop. History In the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided provinces were administratively associat ...

located in

Márianosztra Márianosztra is a village in Pest county, Hungary. Background Márianosztra is home to the Pauline monastery of Márianosztra. The monastery was founded by Louis the Great Louis I, also Louis the Great ( hu, Nagy Lajos; hr, Ludovik Velik ...

, Hungary. The former monastery church is consecrated in honor of Mary the Mother of God and has held the rank of

Basilica Minor In the Catholic Church, a basilica is a designation given by the Pope to a church building. Basilicas are distinguished for ceremonial purposes from other churches. The building need not be a basilica in the architectural sense (a rectangular b ...

since 2012.

Background

In 1352, King

Louis I of Hungary Louis I, also Louis the Great ( hu, Nagy Lajos; hr, Ludovik Veliki; sk, Ľudovít Veľký) or Louis the Hungarian ( pl, Ludwik Węgierski; 5 March 132610 September 1382), was King of Hungary and Croatia from 1342 and King of Poland from 1370 ...

built a church and a Pauline monastery in a rural area of Hungary, where his daughter Hedwig was brought up. The settlement that later developed around the monastery was named Márianosztra after the patron saint of the monastery, " Our Mary" (Latin: Maria nostra). During the time of Ottoman Hungary, the complex became a ruin. Following the defeat of the Ottomans in the

Great Turkish War The Great Turkish War (german: Großer Türkenkrieg), also called the Wars of the Holy League ( tr, Kutsal İttifak Savaşları), was a series of conflicts between the Ottoman Empire and the Holy League consisting of the Holy Roman Empire, Pola ...

, the church was reconstructed in 1712 and rededicated in 1729. In 1786, the Pauline Order was dissolved and had to leave the monastery, later used as a prison, and the church was given to a newly formed parish. In 1989, the Pauline monks returned to Hungary to once again take care of this sanctuary. Once the home of the founders of the Pauline Order, it is now only the seat of the Hungarian province of the order. In 2012, the church received the rank of Basilica Minor from

Pope Benedict XVI Pope Benedict XVI ( la, Benedictus XVI; it, Benedetto XVI; german: link=no, Benedikt XVI.; born Joseph Aloisius Ratzinger, , on 16 April 1927) is a retired prelate of the Catholic church who served as the head of the Church and the sovereign ...

Building

The architect of the church was Zsigmond Berényi. The sanctuary was built in a Gothicized form in 1717–1718, and the nave and towers later in 1719–1722 in

Baroque style The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including t ...

. The sanctuary was thought to be

Gothic Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...

until Lajos Bozóki probed its walls in 1990 and 1999 and found that the whole sanctuary was built in the 18th century, while the true Gothic architecture ends in the 16th century. (Younger buildings in this style are regarded as forms of Gothic Revival architecture.) Art historian Gergely Domonkos Nagy explains: "The message of these medieval-like forms can easily be interpreted: the settlement of the Pauline Order in Márianosztra is not some kind of new beginning but the continuation of the medieval life of the monastery." The organ of the church is by the Buda master János Staudinger. The Baroque furnishings, woodcarvings and sculptures were made by the Pauline artist Johannes Hasenmiller and his companions. In 1711, the church received a copy of the icon of Black Madonna of Częstochowa from the

Jasna Góra Monastery The Jasna Góra Monastery ( pl, Jasna Góra , ''Luminous Mount'', hu, Fényes Hegy, lat, Clarus Mons) in Częstochowa, Poland, is a shrine dedicated to the Virgin Mary and one of the country's places of pilgrimage. The image of the Black Mad ...

References

{{reflist Basilica churches in Hungary Minor basilicas Baroque architecture in Hungary Baroque church buildings 1720s architecture Roman Catholic monasteries in Hungary