Temple of Monte Grisa

The Temple of Monte Grisa, officially the National Shrine of Mary Mother and Queen (Italian: Santuario Nazionale a Maria Madre e Regina, Slovene: Marijino svetišče na Vejni), is a Roman-Catholic church north of the city of Trieste.^[1] Located at an altitude of 300 metres on the edge of the Karst Plateau above Barcola and Miramare Castle, it is a most conspicuous landmark.

It was built at the initiative of Antonio Santin, since 16 May 1938 Bishop of Trieste and Koper.^[2] Seeing the riots between the Nazi occupiers and the Comitato di Liberazione Nazionale on 30 April 1945 he made a vow to erect a church, if Trieste was saved from total destruction. The city was saved and in 1959 Santin obtained permission from Pope John XXIII to build a pilgrimage church dedicated to the Holy Mary as a symbol of the peace and unity of all people.

The temple was designed by Professor Antonio Guacci, after sketches by Santin. The triangular structures should evoke the letter M as a symbol of the Holy Mary. The church was built in between 1963 and 1965, after a first stone had been laid on 19 September 1959. Santin inaugurated the church on 22 May 1966. On 1 May 1992 Pope John Paul II visited the temple. In 2010 restoration works took place, because the concrete had suffered from alkali-silica reaction.