Marian pilgrimage of Neviges

In September 1680, in the monastery of Dorsten, the Franciscan Antonius Schirley was praying in front of an image of the Immaculate Conception when he heard a voice with the message: "Take me to the Hardenberg, there I will be venerated".

On 25 October, the first pilgrimage to Neviges took place, attended by the Prince-Bishop, the Abbot of Werden and the pious sovereign Duke Jan Wellem.

The pilgrimage experienced an upswing under Father Basil Pfannenschmied after the end of the Prussian Kulturkampf, which required additional space for prayer and devotion.

As a result, the owner of Hardenberg Castle, Baroness Leonie von Wendt zu Holtfeld (1815-1896) donated an area on the steep hill near the parish church.

Here, the Franciscan Alexander Potthast laid out a processional way with 14 walled grottos, in which terracotta reliefs originally depicted the scenes of the Via Dolorosa.

During his time as Archbishop of Cologne, the pilgrimage church Maria, Königin des Friedens was built from 1966 to 1968 according to a design by the architect Gottfried Böhm, who died in 2021.