Basilica at Velehrad

Basilica at Velehrad

Basilica at Velehrad

One of the most important pilgrimage sites in the Czech Republic, a spiritual centre and the place to which the beatified Pope John Paul II made his first official trip as pontiff.
It boasts the beautiful Baroque Basilica of the Assumption and Sts. Cyril and Methodius, built on Romanesque foundations, with the adjacent buildings of a former Cistercian monastery. Even for those who are not usually drawn to religious monuments, there is something of interest here: a lapidarium and catacombs with a collection of stone sculptures and archaeological fragments from the original Cistercian church. In the lapidarium you can even see the golden rose that Pope John Paul II granted to Velehrad in 1985 – an honour bestowed upon only six other basilicas in the world.