Our Lady of Lebanon

Conceived in 1904 by Maronite Patriarch Elias Hoyek and Apostolic Delegate Carlos Duval to honor the fiftieth anniversary of the Immaculate Conception dogma, this Marian sanctuary was inaugurated in May 1908 atop the forested ridge of Harissa. The shrine’s focal point is an 8.5-meter-tall bronze statue cast in Lyon, France, cloaked in brilliant white paint and weighing fifteen tons. Mary stands with arms outstretched over a truncated, conical pedestal of native cream-colored limestone. Looming beside her is the massive, brutalist Basilica of Our Lady of Lebanon, a striking concrete-and-glass monument erected in the 1970s and engineered to evoke both a sweeping Phoenician galley and an unfurling Lebanese cedar. Reaching the summit requires ascending a spiraling exterior staircase that hugs the limestone plinth, narrowing dramatically with every turn. At the top parapet, standing directly beneath the hem of the statue's sculpted robe, visitors encounter an extraordinary panorama: the cobalt crescent of Jounieh Bay arches far below, framed by limestone cliffs and the distant, sun-hazed high-rises of Beirut. Cool Mediterranean drafts mix with the fragrance of coastal pines and the warm aroma of melting beeswax candles, while down inside the rock-hewn chapel at the pedestal’s base, ribbons of frankincense drift past pilgrims of Christian, Druze, and Muslim faiths gathered in shared quietude.