Pilgrimage church

A pilgrimage church (German: Wallfahrtskirche) is a church to which pilgrimages are regularly made, or a church along a pilgrimage route, like the Way of St. James, that is visited by pilgrims.

The Calvary Church in Bonn with its holy stairway

Pilgrimage churches are often located by the graves of saints, or hold portraits to which miraculous properties are ascribed or saintly relics that are safeguarded by the church for their veneration. Such relics may include the bones, books or pieces of clothing of the saints, occasionally also fragments of the cross of Jesus, pieces of the crown of thorns, the nails with which he was fixed to the cross and other similar objects. Pilgrimage churches were also built at places where miracles took place.

Pilgrimage churches in Europe

Churches are listed in alphabetical order of the sites in or near where they are located.

Austria

Mariatrost Basilica in Graz
Basilica of the Birth of the Virgin Mary in Mariazell

Brasil

Czech Republic

France

Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes

Germany

Vierzehnheiligen
Neviges pilgrimage cathedral
The Apollinaris Church in Remagen
The Pilgrimage Church of Birnau by Lake Constance

Gibraltar

Great Britain

Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome

Ireland

Israel

Italy

Lithuania

Mexico

Netherlands

Philippines

Poland

Jasna Góra in Częstochowa
Divine Mercy Sanctuary (Kraków), also known as Łagiewniki

Portugal

Slovakia

Spain

Switzerland

Turkey

See also

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Catholic pilgrimage sites.