Celebration Locations
Three of the most notable celebration venues in Medjugorje:
Apparition Hill or Mount Podbrdo
Located above the village of Podbrdo, in Bijakovici, it is the place where visionaries first saw the Blessed Mother at the end of June 1981. Since then, pilgrims gather at this site to pray the Rosary. Both day and night it is possible to find groups of pilgrims climbing towards this area of the first apparition, which has been marked by a small mound of stones, between which a simple blue cross has been placed. Along the ascending path, in 1989, a series of reliefs were placed that illustrate the joyful and sorrowful mysteries of the Rosary, a work carried out by Prof. Carmelo Puzzolo of Florence.
The Krizevac.
It is a mountain above Medjugorje, on which, in 1934, the inhabitants of the village of Medjugorje, in memory of the 1900th anniversary of the death of Jesus, erected an eight-meter-high cement cross. Both groups of believers and people who come individually express devotion to the Via Crucis by walking from station to station. In the first years, the stations were indicated by wooden crosses, starting in 1988, bronze reliefs were placed next to the crosses – the stations of the Via Crucis – the work of the Italian sculptor Carmelo Puzzolo. The Krizevac has become one of the favorite places for the worship of the suffering of Christ and has also become the Calvary Shrine of Medjugorje.
The Parish Church and the Area around the Church.
It is the place of the celebration of the Eucharist and sacramental life. An earthquake destroyed the old parish church built at the end of the last century. The new church was completed in 1969. Both the church and the parish were consecrated to Santiago, apostle and protector of pilgrims. In 1991, next to the church, a pavilion for open-air celebrations and twenty confessionals were erected. A small chapel has also been built for the adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, with rooms for conferences and spiritual colloquiums, and two pavilions for special celebrations.
