Basilica of Our Lady of Luhan

The Basilica of Our Lady of Luhan is a Catholic church in the city of Lujan ( province of Buenos Aires , Argentina ), dedicated to Our Lady of Luhan, the patron saint of Argentina. The Neo - Gothic basilica , located 70 kilometers west of the federal capital of Buenos Aires , is considered one of Argentina's most revered Catholic shrines - along with cathedrals in La Plata and San Isidro and the Capuchin church in Cordoba .

Basilica
Our Lady
Basílica de Nuestra Señora de Luján
A country	Argentina
City	Luhan
Denomination	Catholicism
Diocese
Architectural style	Neo-gothic
Established	1890 year
Construction	1890 - 1935
Website

The foundation of the temple by the Luhan River is associated with wonderful events. In 1630, the Portuguese Antonio Faria de Sa, a fazendeiro from Santiago del Estero, ordered sailor Juan Andrea to bring a statue of the Virgin Mary from Brazil , which he wanted to install in the chapel under construction. Juan Andrea immediately acquired two statues of Our Lady, which he delivered to Buenos Aires by sea, and then reloaded onto carts and taken to Santiago del Estero. On the second day of the journey, where the road crossed the small river Luhan, the horses got up and could not go any further. They tried to unload the cart, to pull the oxen into it, but it stood still like a glove. Only then could the path be continued when a small box with one of the two statues of the Madonna was lowered to the ground. This was interpreted as a miracle and the highest sign that the future Virgin Mary of Luhansk wants to stay in this place. The statue of the Virgin was transferred to the house of Don Rosendo de Oramas, where they were placed in a place of honor. People who heard about the miracle began to come to worship the holy image.

The first chapel by the Luhan River appeared in 1685 . There were more and more pilgrims ; gradually a village called Luhan grew around the chapel. In 1730, the village receives city status, and the chapel of Our Lady of Luhansk becomes a parish church . In 1763, a larger church was built on the same site. The construction of the temple, which we see today, began on May 6, 1890, under the direction of the French architect Ulrich Courtois. The church was consecrated in December 1910 , despite the fact that the towers were not yet completed. On November 15, 1930, Pope Pius XI granted the Church of Our Lady in Luhan the status of a basilica. The construction of the temple was completed by 1935 .

In October 1975, a group of young Catholics made the first pilgrimage on foot from Buenos Aires to the Virgin Mary of Luhansk (the journey was 70 kilometers). Since then, this tradition has become annual. On June 11, 1982, the Basilica was visited by Pope John Paul II and celebrated Mass in front of 700 thousand believers. In 1998, the Basilica of Our Lady of Luhan was declared a monument to the history of Argentina. On May 25, 2010, in the presence of the President of Argentina, Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, in the Basilica of Our Lady of Luhan, a Te Deum solemn service was held dedicated to the 200th anniversary of Argentina. Currently, the patron saint of Argentina is visited by up to 4 million pilgrims a year. On October 2, 2011, more than a million believers made a pilgrimage to the Virgin Mary of Luhansk under the motto: “Mother of God, help us take care of life” ^[1] .

The basilica was built in the neo - Gothic style , traditional for Catholic architecture of the late XIX century. The length of the longitudinal nave is 104 meters; the width is 42 meters; the length of the transept is 68.5 meters. Each of the two towers is 106 meters high and is crowned with a cross 1.1 meters in size. On the facade of the basilica there are 16 figures of the apostles and evangelists . On the towers are 15 bells weighing from 55 to 3400 kilograms and a carillon with an electric clock .