Basilica of the Birth of the Virgin Mary, Chełm

The Basilica of the Birth of the Virgin Mary (Bazylika Narodzenia Najświętszej Maryi Panny) is a church and monastery complex of the Roman Catholic Church located in the Polish city of Chełm. The church and the courtyard of the basilica stand in the centre of Chełm on Chełm Hill (also called Cathedral Hill or Castle Hill). Over its history, the church has been Orthodox, Uniate and Roman Catholic. Surrounding the basilica's grounds is a city park and a cemetery.

The basilica is a former complex of Orthodox Church and Basilian Monastery. It was founded in the first half of the 13th century by Danylo Romanowych and served as an Orthodox Church and then as a Greek Catholic Church. The present church was founded in 1735-56 by the Greek Catholic Chełm bishop Philip Włodkowic and was built according to the plans of Paweł Fontana. It is a late baroque church built in the shape of a Latin cross, three-aisled basilica with a huge eight-part dome.

A former Greek Catholic Cathedral and currently the Parish church, the Basilica of the Virgin Mary stands on the site of an Orthodox church of the same name, founded by Daniel Romanowicz in about 1260. After a fire in 1640, it was rebuilt by bishop Metody Terlecki who introduced some small changes. As the years went by, the church needed to be enlarged and in 1711 bishop Józef Lewicki began repair works and built a transept. Unfortunately, it turned out that the work was done so unreliably that the building was close to collapse. The successor of Lewicki, bishop Felicjan Wołodkowicz considered the building's condition to be so bad that renovation was no longer an option and therefore commissioned its demolition. In 1735 the work began and a completely new, much bigger church was built, which was ready in 1756. That time, in curia sat on bishop Maksymilian Rylo, who finished the investment and founded rich decoration of sanctuary. On 15 September 1765 the church was the place of the coronation of the marvellous painting of the Our Lady of Chełm. The painting was revered throughout the country because of its connection with the victory in the Ba

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