Medjugorje

I've heard a lot about Medjugorje, but I was never there. That is why I included it in my itinerary on this journey. I arrived on Sunday, 25th of June, 2023. I had the apartment reserved some 2 kilometers from the center of the town. I arrived later in the afternoon. My hosts were a family with two children and they were very kind, even giving me some soup that was left from the lunch. They told me that there was a special celebration going on with the mass at 7pm.

On this day, 42 years ago it has become a popular site of Catholic pilgrimage due to Our Lady of Medjugorje, a purported series of apparitions of the Virgin Mary, mother of Jesus, to six local children, which some people believe are still happening to this day.

These events became so widely known that people started to come and see the place. The village started to adapt to the new circumstances, offering lodging to the pilgrims and over the decades it became a pilgrimage destinations for tens of thousands people every year. On the day I was there, it was told that about 30,000 people were present! The organization of everything was running so smoothly, that there were no crowds and queues before and after the evening event.

The town now looks like a tourist resort. Small hotels, apartments, rooms, souvenir shops, restaurants and bars are everywhere.