Saint Anthony Church, Laç

The Church of Saint Anthony in Lac is Albania's most important Catholic pilgrimage site, sitting on a hill above the industrial town of Lac north of Tirana. The Franciscan sanctuary dates back to the 14th century and is dedicated to Saint Anthony of Padua. Under Enver Hoxha's atheist regime the church was dynamited in 1967, then rebuilt by believers in the 1990s. Each year on June 13, the feast of Saint Anthony, up to 100,000 pilgrims climb the steep path, including a striking number of Muslims and Orthodox Christians, making Lac a symbol of Albanian religious tolerance. From the forecourt with its bronze statue of the saint, the view sweeps across the Mati plain to the Mediterranean.