The Parish Church of Our Lady of Loreto in Għajnsielem, Gozo, is dedicated to the Virgin Mary, inspired by the Marian shrine of Loreto in Italy—Europe’s third most important Marian pilgrimage site. The tradition traces back to 1291, when the Holy House of Mary was said to have miraculously arrived in Loreto from the Holy Land.
In Għajnsielem, the devotion began after an apparition near a spring, and a church was built in thanksgiving after the village was spared from a cholera outbreak. A statue sculpted in Marseilles arrived in 1866 and was carried in procession from Mġarr Harbour. As the town grew, a larger neo-Gothic church was planned in 1924. Due to interruptions from World War I, accidents, and multiple changes of architects, construction was delayed for decades. The new church was completed and consecrated in 1978, with the bell tower blessed in 1979. The original titular statue now resides in this larger church.
- Address
27GQ+FM4, Pjazza Madonna Ta’ Loreto, Għajnsielem, Malta - Web
None - Visiting Hours
Unknown - What to see
Neo-gothic church
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