Monastery in Marianka

The site was in an administration of the Pavlines order whose histo­rians recorded down an orally passed legend about a hermit who lived in the hillside of Marianka. He caved a statue of Virgin Mary out from the wood of a pear tree (according to pavlin Louis Kummer it was in 1030).

After death of the Hungarian king Stephan during the time of uproar the hermit had to flee from his dwelling. He hid the statue into a tree hollow. It was found a few decades later the way that was also mysterious. The most famous legend says that in the hillside there lived a highwayman whose children were born severely stricken.

The pilgrimage site's history was recorded since the visit of the Hungarian king Louis I the Great of Anjou family in 1377.

Originally the church of Virgin Mary's Birth is gothic. The gothic construction is still preserved. At the end of the 17th century the emperor Leopold I let it reconstruct in baroque style. Stuccos, paintings, decorations and side altars located in the vessel of the church are dated from this period.

Also the presbytery was rebuilt in baroque style but at the end of the 19th century (1877) its gothic style was restored.

St Pavlin's order governed the pilgrimage site since 1377 until 1786. They experienced glorious prosperity but also decline and the final end. Since 16th century Marianka became the residence of the order's minister abbot / General Prior as well as the center of theo­logical study.

The monastery became the castle which was owned by several earl families.