Aglonas Basilica is sacred place visited by thousands of people.

Adress: Cirīšu iela 8, Aglona, Aglonas novads, LV- 5304
Phone: +371 29188740; +371 65381109
E-mail: [email protected], [email protected]
Web: www.aglonasbazilika.lv
GPS: 56.125235, 27.013975
Languages: LV, RU, DE, EN

Aglona basilica was built in the late baroque style; it is decorated with two 60 meters high towers. Pilgrims come to Aglona every year on August 15 to celebrate the day of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary into Heaven. It is one of the most well-known sacred sites in the world. Groined vaults, arches and columns splendidly decorated in rococo style can be found inside. The Dominican order founded a monastery and built the first wooden church in Aglona in the 17^th century. When in 1699 the wooden church burned down, the stone building of a monastery and the present temple was built on its place in 1768 – 1780. The interior finish of the church was created in the 18^th – 19^th century, but the pulpit and the organ – at the close of the 18^th century.

The church houses a collection of paintings, sculptures and artistic treasures, including a famous icon “Our Miraculous Lady of Aglona” which is uncovered only during religious feasts. The icon is considered to have healing powers. The Pope of Rome John Paul II visited Aglona basilica in September of 1993. Due to this visit extensive renovation works in the church and improvements of the surrounding area were carried out.

A sacred place visited by thousands of people.

The Dominicans (“white fathers”) built the first wooden church together with the monastery in 1700. The monks placed the Holy Mother’s icon (brought by them from Vilnius) in the church, prayed in front of it, and called on all the believers to do the same. Owing to a number of recovery instances the first pilgrimages to Aglona started. The white fathers initiated the construction of a baroque style stone church and monastery in 1768, in 1780 they finished the building process and consecrated the new buildings. As the Russian Empire prohibited the affiliation of new candidates to the monastery, the last of the white fathers died at the end of the 19^th century, and ordinary diocesan priests began to serve Aglona. In 1920 the first bishop of Latvian origin A. Springovičs was consecrated in Aglona; he was the one who selected Aglona church to be the renewed Riga Archbishopric cathedral. Right after that Theological Seminary was opened in the monastery, and after a year – Aglona Catholic Gymnasium. The quantity of pilgrims increased even more, then Aglona was called the Catholic centre of Latvia. In 1980 the Pope gave Aglona church the title of the “minor basilica” (“basilica minoris”). It is the only one in Latvia. The Pope of Rome John Paul II arrived to Aglona as a pilgrim on September 9, 1993. In 1995 the parliament of the Republic of Latvia passed the law “The Sacred Site of National Importance in Aglona”.