Virgin Mary’s Shrine Pilgrimage in Szydłów (Samogitia)

Abstract

Virgin Mary’s Shrine Pilgrimage in Szydłów (Samogitia)

This article is the present outline of Szydłów in Samogitia (Šiluva, in Lithuanian) – the place of religious cult connected with its pilgrimages and rich pieces of architectural art.

Its fame and signifiance were caused by the miraculous image of Virgin Mary, which was coronated in 1786.

There is a legend associated with the miraculous revelation of Mary with the Child which caused the numerous of grace and healing. Then Szydłów was taken by Catholics from Calvinists. Next, a small wooden chapel was built there and
later – as a consequence of the intensity and incerasing number of pilgrimages – made it necessary to build a new magnifient church.

That was done between 1776 and 1786. Jan Krzysztof Glaubitz, the Best architect from the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, was designer and Jan Dominik Łopaciński, the local parish-priest (and later the Bishop of Samogitia) was the foundator of above chapel.

Over the centuries in the history of chapel there was another signifiant fact. In 1903, Marcijonas Povilas Jurgaitis was the next parish-priest of Szydłów.

The small size and the condition of church were made him to seek new solutions. They successfully ended and he could build a new brick shrine appropriately to its religious rank of village. The plan of the church was created between 1903 and 1906 by an architect and sculptor Antoni Wiwulski (1877–1919), who worked in Paris.

In the conclusion of this article there is an important fact that the chapel tower, shaped as an obelisk was erected between 1912 and 1914. Nowadays, this shrine in Szydłów is considered as an outstanding masterpiece of architecture and as the best example of modernizing historicism.