Basilica of Regina Pacis

Post-war votive church in Brooklyn, built as a Basilica Minor to honor World War II soldiers.

The Basilica of Regina Pacis — Queen of Peace — stands in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, a neighborhood once shaped by waves of Italian immigrants. Built as a votive church in honor of soldiers lost and returned from World War II, it was consecrated in 1951 and later elevated to the rank of Basilica Minor by the Vatican. Its facade echoes classical Italian ecclesiastical architecture, a nod to the community that built it. Today the church remains an active parish and a quiet neighborhood memorial to the wartime generation of Bensonhurst, holding fast to its Italian-American roots.