Maria Radna Monastery
Lipova, Arad County · Crișana
About Maria Radna Monastery
On the right bank of the Mureș, in the Radna quarter of the town of Lipova, stands the most important Catholic pilgrimage site in western Romania: a Baroque church with two 67-metre towers, attached to a monastic quadrangle 50 metres to a side with 68 rooms. In 1992 Pope John Paul II gave the church the title of papal basilica, basilica minor.
It all began with an icon printed on paper in northern Italy, a Virgin of Mount Carmel bought by an elderly Bosnian of Radna from a travelling merchant and given, in 1668, to the chapel among the village vineyards. In 1695, during an Ottoman raid, the chapel burned down but the icon was untouched — that is where the pilgrimages started, officially recognised at a solemn mass on 8 September 1750. The present church was built between 1756 and 1781, the towers were raised in 1911, and in 1935 the interwar record was set: 73,000 pilgrims in a single year.
The Franciscan monastery beside it went up in stages, between 1727 and 1826. In 1951 the communist regime seized it and turned it first into an internment camp for monks and nuns, then into a home for the chronically ill. It was only returned in 2003 — the very year the last Franciscans left Radna for lack of vocations — and restored with European funding between 2013 and 2015. Today the basilica is in the care of the diocesan clergy of Timișoara, and the old cells house a museum, a library and conference rooms.
What you can see
Above the Carrara marble high altar, put up in 1895, the miracle-working icon shines in its silver frame, made in Vienna by the goldsmith Joseph Moser between 1769 and 1771 and reckoned the largest work of its kind in south-eastern Europe. On the vault above the altar is a fresco of 1762 by the Viennese painter Ferdinand Schießl, and along the nave stand ten Neoclassical side altars and a pulpit of 1783. On the gallery is the organ built in 1905 by Leopold Wegenstein of Timișoara, with 26 stops and 1,580 pipes.
Set into the right-hand wall of the nave is the stone with a hoof print, from the legend of the Turkish horseman stopped as he tried to ride into the church. The most unusual rooms, though, are the two vaulted corridors to the left of the entrance, on the ground floor and above: their walls are covered with hundreds of votive pictures, painted or embroidered by people who came to give thanks for a healing. From behind the monastery the Way of the Cross climbs Pilgrims' Hill, with its fourteen stations consecrated in 1890 and a Crucifixion chapel at the top.
Good to know
The Way of the Cross has been under repair since 2023, funded by donations, so some stations may be closed off. On the great pilgrimage days — the Assumption on 15 August and the Nativity of the Virgin on 8 September — tens of thousands of people come, services are held in several languages and the church is far too small. It is a working church: you cannot walk around it during mass.
- The miracle-working icon above the high altar, in its silver frame made in Vienna between 1769 and 1771.
- The two corridors with hundreds of votive pictures, brought by pilgrims in thanksgiving.
- The organ built in 1905 by Leopold Wegenstein, with 26 stops and 1,580 pipes, on the gallery above the entrance.
- The stone with a hoof print in the nave wall, tied to the legend of the Turkish horseman of 1695.
- The Way of the Cross on Pilgrims' Hill, with its fourteen stations of 1889–1890 and the Crucifixion chapel at the top.
Good to know before you go
- Getting there
By car: the basilica sits right beside the DN7 (E68) Arad – Deva road, at the entrance to Lipova coming from Arad, and is signposted from the road. Arad is ~33 km away (~35 minutes), Timișoara ~60 km (~1 hour) on the DJ691, Deva ~120 km (~1 hour 40 minutes). It combines well with the ruins of Șoimoș fortress, on the hill opposite across the Mureș, and with the old centre of Lipova, 2 km away.
Public transport: Radna station is on the Arad – Simeria main line, ~700 m from the basilica, a ten-minute walk; the train from Arad takes about 40 minutes and there are several services a day. Minibuses to Lipova also run from Arad bus station.
- Where to park
Park free of charge on the paved square below the basilica, a few dozen metres from the stairway up to the churchyard, or in the car park by the road into Radna. On the big August and September pilgrimage days the spaces fill early and people leave their cars along the main road.
- Fees & discounts
The parish does not publish visiting charges online. The monastery museum, the religious goods shop and the tourist information centre are visited separately, through the corridor to the left of the church and the monastery's inner courtyard; ask at the information centre what the museum costs.
- Rules
This is a working basilica and a place of pilgrimage, not a museum: dress modestly, keep quiet, and no food or drink inside the church. During mass you cannot walk around the church or visit the museum. The parish does not publish its photography rules — ask in the sacristy or at the information centre before taking out a camera.
- Facilities
monastery museum, with votive pictures and Franciscan objects · library and conference rooms · religious goods and souvenir shop · tourist information centre ~50 m from the monastery · adapted toilets and facilities for visitors with reduced mobility, added in the 2013–2015 restoration · pilgrim accommodation nearby at Casa Hildegardis, run by the Caritas Lipova association · restaurants and guesthouses in Lipova
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