Church of Our Lady of the Snows (Tekije) – Petrovaradin (Pétervárad)
Tekije in Petrovaradin (Pétervárad) is the largest Marian shrine in Serbia. Its history is linked to the Battle of Petrovaradin in 1716, which is also commemorated by the crescent beneath the cross on the church's dome.
“Tekija” is a Turkish word meaning monastery. After the Ottoman period, in 1693, the Jesuits who settled here converted the mosque that stood on the site into a chapel.
On 5 August 1716, the feast of Our Lady of the Snows, Prince Eugene of Savoy won a decisive victory over the Ottoman army at Petrovaradin. In memory of the victory Pope Clement XI extended the feast of Our Lady of the Rosary to the whole Church. According to tradition, the soldiers found an image of Mary in the branches of a tree beside the chapel, which Prince Eugene placed on the chapel altar after the victory with a solemn Te Deum; other accounts say the prince donated the image himself.
Today's twin-towered neo-Gothic shrine church was built in 1881 to the designs of Hermann Bollé of Zagreb, on the initiative of parish priest Ilija Okrugić and with the permission of Bishop Josip Juraj Strossmayer. The single-nave church is 35.8 metres long; its neo-Gothic high altar was made in 1881 in the South Tyrolean workshop of Ferdinand Stuflesser.
Pilgrimage feast: The main pilgrimage is on the feast of Our Lady of the Snows, 5 August – with a Mass in Hungarian as well. A smaller pilgrimage is held on 26 July, the feast of Saint Anne.
Visiting: The church stands on the edge of Petrovaradin, on the old road towards Sremski Karlovci (Karlóca); it is easy to reach from Novi Sad (Újvidék).
Sources: Vajma.info – Our Lady of the Snows · Wikipedia (Serbian) · Wikipedia (Croatian)
Photo: Saskafoto / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
Town:
Petrovaradin (Pétervárad)