CHURCH OF THE ASSUMPTION

This Catholic church (Ngriturit e Zojes së bekuar në Qiell, Crkva Uznešenja Bogorodice Crnagorske) dates from 1931 and is not architecturally interesting. However, it is a place of fervent piety, with a statue of the "Black Madonna" which is said to be miraculous. The first church was built by the local Croatian community in 1584 and destroyed in 1722 during the wars between the Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman empires. A new church was built soon after, but it was hit by an earthquake in 1866. In 1927, at the age of 17, Anjeza Gonxhe Bojaxhiu made a pilgrimage here and decided to enter the orders. The following year, she left for India where she took the name of Teresa and pronounced her final vows in Calcutta in 1937. The damaged church was demolished in 1928 to make way for the present church, which was consecrated on 14 August 1931. For a long time it was attached to the Catholic diocese of Skopje, but now it belongs to that of Prizren-Pristina. The white-painted church is located above the village, in a courtyard that houses housing and teaching rooms. On the east side, an open-air theatre is used for the reception of groups during pilgrimages. The building corresponds to the model of modern Croatian churches: two bell towers in the front and a long nave ending in an apse and a transept.

The "Black Madonna". Inside, there are statues of St. Joseph, St. Anthony of Padua and St. Nicholas, as well as portraits of John Paul II and Mother Teresa, all of recent construction. But there is also an older statue of St. Roch (late 16th or early 17th century) located in a chapel in the transept. The statue of the "Black Madonna" stands behind the altar. It is a large sculpture in dark wood representing the Virgin raising the Christ child. It was made in the 16th or 17th century, possibly by a pupil of Michelangelo, for the Catholic Church of St. Paraskeva in Skopje. When the latter was transformed into a mosque in 1671, the statue was transferred to Letnica where it remained hidden until 1872. The statue is said to have performed a series of miracles (not recognized by the Vatican), especially for couples suffering from infertility. For this reason, the church is visited by Balkan couples of all confessions. The statue is brought out in a procession every August 15 for the feast of the Assumption ("the entry into the glory of God" of Mary, according to the Catholic tradition, or, more prosaically, her death).