Máriapócs is a small town in Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg county, in the Northern Great Plain region of eastern Hungary, near Nyíregyháza. The town is a pilgrimage site centered on Saint Michael the Archangel Greek Catholic Church, which houses an icon of the Mother of God said to have wept on two occasions; the icon on display is an 18th-century copy, while the original, which wept once, is kept at St. Stephen's Cathedral in Vienna.
Facts
Area (sq km) Founding Year Founding Year Population Estimate Year Latitude47.878889 degrees north 1 FAQs
Why is the icon at Máriapócs said to weep and where is the original now?
The original icon wept in 1696 and now hangs in Vienna; the copy in Máriapócs was reported to weep in 1715 and 1905.
The icon of the Virgin Mary in the small Greek Catholic wooden church of Máriapócs is reported to have begun shedding tears on 4 November 1696. News of the event reached the Viennese court, and Emperor Leopold I ordered the icon taken to Vienna, where it was placed in St. Stephen's Cathedral in the summer of 1697. A copy of the painting kept in Máriapócs was also reported to weep in 1715 and again in 1905. The weeping is a tradition of the shrine and is not something this atlas can verify.
When was the present church at Máriapócs built?
The Baroque Saint Michael church was built from 1731 to 1756 to hold the growing number of pilgrims.
As the number of pilgrims grew, the wooden church could no longer hold the visitors. A new church in early Baroque style, dedicated to Saint Michael, was built from 1731 to 1756. Its two towers with gabled helmets were completed in 1856, and in 2005 Cardinal Péter Erdő declared the church a National Shrine.
Sources
1. Máriapócs (Wikidata)
P1082 (population)
population 1,826 (2025)
P625 (coordinate location)
latitude 47.878889, longitude 22.018889
P2046 (area)
area 22.09 sq km
P1082 (population), P585 (point in time)
population 1826 (2025)
View the Source2. Wikipedia (Hungarian): Máriapócs
Wikipedia (Hungarian)Source text, founding-year-range-start: 1280
Pócs nevét az oklevelek 1280 -ban említik először, birtokosai ez idő tájt a Hontpázmány nemzetség tagjai lehettek, akik a település birtokjogáért pereskedtek.
Source text, founding-year-range-end: 1280
Pócs nevét az oklevelek 1280 -ban említik először, birtokosai ez idő tájt a Hontpázmány nemzetség tagjai lehettek, akik a település birtokjogáért pereskedtek.
Source text, founding-year: 1280
Pócs nevét az oklevelek 1280 -ban említik először, birtokosai ez idő tájt a Hontpázmány nemzetség tagjai lehettek, akik a település birtokjogáért pereskedtek.
View the Source Máriapócs (Wikipedia)
In Group: Cities of Eastern Europe (World), Wikipedia; part-of country and UN M49 subregionView the Source Reader Challenges (0)
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