Sanctuary of Our Lady of Good Counsel

A set of old walls at the site had long been venerated by Catholics as the ruins of a church to Our Lady of Good Counsel and by Muslims as that of a Bektashi Order khanqah. Ecclesiastical historian Daniele Farlati described an active dervish khanqah (Albanian: tekke) in the 18th century. The Ottoman government blocked off the walls when quarrels arose over which faith was entitled to their use, referring the matter to a commission including Jusuf Effendi Golemi and Shani Dedëjakupeva, who held that both Catholics and Muslims could worship there.^[2]

In 1917, the Catholic clergy gained Austro-Hungarian approval to build the church, provoking protests by Muslims in front of the Ministry of War building in Vienna. The church was dedicated to Our Lady of Good Counsel and completed in 1930. The Archbishop of Shkodër, Jak Serreqi, laid the cornerstone on March 25, 1917, and was buried there in 1922.^[2]

In 1946, after the communist takeover, over two thousand pilgrims visited, but not long after, it was turned into a ballroom and eventually would be destroyed during the Cultural Revolution.^[3] After the fall of communism, the church was rebuilt and its cornerstone was blessed by Pope John Paul II in 1993.^[4] The project was funded by Simeone Duca, a noted theologian belonging to the Arbanasi community of Albanians in Zadar, Croatia.^[5]

On April 26, 2024, coinciding with the feast of Our Lady of Good Counsel, the shrine was formally declared a minor basilica. This distinction was decreed through the Dicastery for Divine Worship on April 22, 2024 for the Archdiocese of Shkodër–Pult, which makes it the first basilica in Albania.^[6]