Basilica of Our Lady of Thierenbach

The Basilica of Our Lady of Thierenbach is a Cluniac priory and minor basilica located in Jungholtz, in the Alasace region of France. The priory was built on the order of the Abbot of Cluny Abbey in the Benedictine order, with construction occurring around 1130. Monks from Cluny Abbey occupied the priory until the 17th century. The current structure was designed by Peter Thumb and was built between 1719 and 1723 after the original 12th-century structure was destroyed during the Thirty Years War. The basilica was later abandoned during the French Revolution. The current church was built in the Baroque style, with a number of typical Baroque features, such as ex-voto images along the walls, and an elaborate altarpiece. The most recent building works, taking place in 1932, saw the erection of a Baroque bell tower, topped with a bulbous dome. Today, the basilica draws hundreds of thousands of pilgrims a year, and is a significant site of pilgrimage in the Alsace region.

The origins of the priory date back to 730, when a number of Benedictine monks started a mission to convert the population of Alsace. Numerous churches were built by them in the 8th century in Alsace. The Cluniac mission built on the foundations of the Benedictine missions after the miraculous cure of a supposedly incurable disease inflicted upon a young man from Soultz. According to legend, he pledged to build a shrine to the Virgin Mary if he was cured. Attracted by these stories, a Cluniac mission was built in the town. The religious community never exceeded more than ten monks, and they were subservient to the mother monastery at Cluny. The priory existed for several centuries but was extensively attacked and damaged during the Middle Ages and in the Thirty Years War. The priory interior was heavily damaged in 1276 in a fire, and it was sacked by peasants in 1525. The archives of the early monastery and the church itself were extensively damaged deliberately during the Thirty Years War, in 1640.

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