Šiluva Church area (Our Lady of Šiluva / Immaculate Conception)

Šiluva is a historic Marian devotional site associated with the Virgin Mary under the title Our Lady of Šiluva (Immaculate Conception). A church was founded at Šiluva by Petras (Peter) Giedgaudas in 1457; that early church was later demolished during the period of confessional upheaval, and devotional memory centers on reported Marian apparitions on the site of the former church. Sources describe two apparitions—commonly dated in the supplied material to 1608—after which local Catholic practice renewed and, in 1622, the land was legally returned to Catholics. The present Baroque Graceful Virgin Mary (Immaculate Conception) church, described in sources as the only single‑towered Baroque church in Lithuania, was constructed in 1768. Šiluva remained an important pilgrimage and devotional centre through the 20th century, enduring Soviet‑era restrictions and receiving a papal visit by Pope John Paul II on 7 September 1993.