Franciscan Monastery and Church of Our Lady of Loreto, Kuna Pelješka

The Franciscan Monastery and Church of Our Lady of Loreto, known as Delorita, are located south of the village of Kuna on Pelješac, in the municipality of Orebić in Dubrovnik-Neretva County. They stand out strongly in the picture of the place and are an important pilgrimage and votive site of Pelješac.

The monastery is large, rectangular in shape, a Baroque cloistered building. The votive Church of Our Lady of Loreto dates from 1681 and received its present form in 1705, when the construction of the monastery also began. The church is a three-nave basilica, built with contributions from the people and the diocese, and is described as the most representative sacred building outside Dubrovnik. The interior was carried out by the builders of the Dubrovnik Baroque cathedral, so the division of space is very similar. The popular name Delorita derives from Loreto and preserves the memory of Our Lady's little house which, according to legend, was carried by angels.

The complex is a protected cultural good, and is entered in the Register of Cultural Goods of the Republic of Croatia under the code Z-4619 as sacred-secular architectural heritage from the 18th century.

Photo: Miroslav.vajdic, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons.
Data: Register of Cultural Goods of the Republic of Croatia (Ministry of Culture and Media), Open Licence; coordinates: Wikidata (CC0).