Spiritual recharging: sacral monuments in Pécs and the region

Not far from the cathedral, you will find the early Christian necropolis, the burial place of the early Christian town dwellers. It has been listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site since 2000, and though there are ongoing excavations, the general public can visit several parts today. Walking among the tombs, tomb chapels and the cemetery buildings under the ground, you get a vivid picture of religious habits of early Christians in the Roman Empire.  

The third globally-known sacral memorial place of the region is Máriagyűd Shrine, visited by hundreds of thousands of people every year. The baroque-style orange and white building with two towers is also a pilgrimage site, and the destination of the Hungarian Pilgrimage Route, the local equivalent of El Camino. The focal point of the church is the new pilgrimage statue made in 1713, and its special feature is the rosary promenade, an 800-metre-long thematic walkway around the church. 

Located 25 kilometres from Pécs, Máriakéménd is also a pilgrimage site. Nagyboldogasszony (Our Lady of Assumption) pilgrimage church was renovated in the middle of the 18th century in baroque style, the interior is in Louis-seize style. Look at the main altar closely: on each of the two sides, seven secrets of the rosary are revealed in rococo-style frames, and a Virgin Mary pilgrimage statue has been standing on the altar since 1765. In front of the main entrance of the church, moreover, there are two famous Zsolnay pyrogranite ceramic statues.