Bazilika Nanebevzetí Panny Marie
Czechia
Walk into the main courtyard at Velehrad and the basilica meets you head-on: a front framed by two square towers, each 68 metres high, their belfry storeys carrying clock faces beneath onion-shaped roofs and open octagonal lanterns. This is officially the most important pilgrimage church in the Czech Republic, and it is also simply the parish church, open freely all year round. It began as the abbey church of a monastery founded by the Moravian margrave Vladislav Jindřich, and its eastern part was consecrated on 27 November 1228, with King Přemysl Otakar I in attendance. Look above the entrance and both founders are still there in heraldry: the eagle for the margrave, the lion for the king, with the arms of Pope Pius XI above them.
- Written with AI from the Wikipedia article Bazilika Nanebevzetí Panny Marie a svatého Cyrila a Metoděje (cs.wikipedia.org); facts only from there
- Show on OpenStreetMap
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