The Basilica of the Assumption of Our Lady is one-naved pilgrimage church, built in Early Baroque style by Italian architect Giacomo de Vaccani, on the site of an older church that served as a deposit for the so-called "Palladium of Bohemia" – an Gothic copper relief of the Madonna with Child.
Tens of thousands of pilgrims have been brought to Stará Boleslav by the cult of gracious Virgin Mary with little Jesus, the Palladium of Bohemia. That's why construction of a new church, supported by Empress Anna, wife of Emperor Matthias, started in 1617 by Giacomo de Vaccani. The church of the Assumption of Our Lady was inaugurated in 1623 and it is one of the first Baroque sacred buildings in the Czech lands. In the 18th century a cloister was built behind the church's presbytery and Kilian Ignaz Dientzenhofer, architect of the imperial court, finished construction of the southern tower as well as rebuilt the church's front face, decorated with statues of Czech patron saints and the Palladium of Bohemia. The high altar, made by František Maxmilián Kanka, is decorated with a sculptural group of the Assumption by Matthias Braun. A special box was made in the presbytery to keep the Palladium; its lattice door is signed with the coat-of-arms of the donators, eight silver stars of the House of Sternberg. Other items, such as altars and side chapels, were paid by noble families as well – Czernin, Berka of Dubé, Lažanský, Slavata, Wallenstein, and Martinic; the chapels still bear their names.
Other noble houses and significant persons donated the "Holy Path", 44 chapels standing along the road from Prague to Stará Boleslav. These were built in the mid-18th century by Jesuits to illustrate close relation between the St. Wenceslaus' tradition and the Marian tradition; half of them are still standing today.
The Basilica was visited by Holy Father Benedict XVI during his journey in Czech lands in September 2009...
History of the Palladium of Bohemia.
Stará Boleslav is not a place of pilgrimage merely because of the St. Wenceslaus tradition. Virgin Mary, Mother of God with little Jesus, is also venerated there as represented by an ancient Gothic icon of gold-coated copper.
The legend says that the icon, a picture or rather a metal relief of Our Lady was donated to Princess Ludmila on her baptism by St. Methodius and she later gave it to her beloved grandson Wenceslaus. After his martyrdom, Wenceslaus' faithful servant Podiven left the Boleslaus' grad with the picture and dug it into ground for fear of profanation just before he was caught and hung by the murderers. For two centuries it was buried and only in the mid-12th century a peasant found it in the today's location of the Our Lady's church. Canons of the Stará Boleslav chapter had a chapel built there and placed in the picture. Attracted by some miracles, pilgrims started to come from surrounding villages as well as from Prague and a new Marian pilgrim tradition arose from the deepness of the St. Wenceslaus' legend. Although the town was completely burned during the Hussite wars and the relief itself severely damaged, it was saved and later its copy was made. This one is still venerated in Stará Boleslav today and its style refers to the Our Lady of St. Vitus.
Further damage was done during the Thirty Years' War and only plundered churches remained in the destroyed and burned town. The icon of Our Lady was stolen as well by Saxons in 1632, but given back thanks to Princess Benigna Katerina Lobkowicz and Emperor Ferdinand III in 1638, during a significant pilgrimage. Two more times it had to leave Stará Boleslav in the Thirty Years' War. The icon was then kept at the imperial court in Vienna and in 1640 it witnessed birth of Emperor Leopold I, Europe's defender against the Ottoman Empire. During the last days of the war the relief was held by the Sweden army for a short time and only in 1650 returned back.
In 1609 the icon was proclaimed "Palladium", protecting picture of Bohemia, and its tradition grew with coming of Jesuits and Redemptorists and with the care of the Stará Boleslav chapter.