A votive church (votive from the Latin 'vowed sacrifice, vows') is a church that was built as a votive offering, either as a sign of thanksgiving for salvation from an emergency or with a request for the fulfillment of a specific desire,churches at World Heritage; retrieved 19 December 2025 (and sometimes known as "thanksgiving churches"(de), or as an act of expiation, or atonement (also known as an "expiatory chapel"). Often, the builder has previously made a vow to have the church built in the case of the prayer heard (or taken over the construction costs).
Chapels of thanksgiving Votive Chapel, Nattenhausen (de); chapel of thanksgiving, built around 1900 Votive Church, Passau (de); consecrated in honour of the proclamation of the Immaculate Conception in 1854 Votive Church, Szeged; thanksgiving after a flood in 1879 Votivkirche, Vienna; thanksgiving for preserving the life of Emperor Franz Joseph in 1853 Basilica of Notre-Dame-des-Victoires, Paris; thanksgiving for victory over Protestants in 1628 Santa Maria della Salute, Venice; thanksgiving after an outbreak of plague in 1630 Estrela Basilica, Lisbon; thanksgiving for the birth of a child to Queen Maria I in 1761 Trinity Church, Munich; thanksgiving for protection from the Austrians during the War of the Spanish Succession Il Redentore, Venice; thanksgiving after an outbreak of plague in 1592 Strandarkirkja, Selvogur, Iceland; thanksgiving for the saving of a group of sailors in the 12th century Notre-Dame de Fourvière, Lyon; Dedicated to the Virgin Mary, to whom is attributed the salvation of the city from the bubonic plague in 1643. San Giorgio, Siena; dedicated to San Giorgio in thanksgiving for the victory achieved by the Sienese in the battle of Montaperti. Monastery of Batalha, Portugal; Built to thank the Virgin Mary for the Portuguese victory over the Castilians in the Battle of Aljubarrota in 1385.Monastery of Batalha: English guide July 2005
Expiatory chapels Chapelle expiatoire, Paris; atonement for the execution of Marie Antoinette, built 1816A. and W. Galignani (1825) The History of Paris: From the Earliest Period to the Present Day; Containing a Description of Its Antiquities, Public Buildings, Civil, Religious, Scientific and Commercial Institutions pp.119–120 Sagrada Família, Barcelona, founded in 1882 in response to a growing rejection of the Catholic church and its values"The History of the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona"; retrieved 23 February 2026 Sacré-Cœur, Paris, atonement for the moral decline of the country since the French Revolution."Le Sacre-Coeur – Monument Historique? Polemique en Vue." by Baudouin Eschapasse, "Le Point" magazine, October 14, 2020
References
External links Vytautas Gudonis:The Phenomenon of a Miracle Cure in Religion and the Fine Arts; Vol. 4 (2017): SOCIETY. INTEGRATION. EDUCATION. Proceedings of the International Scientific Conference May 27th-28th, 2017, Volume IV: This study provides the etymological background of the "votive" (from the Latin voveo, meaning a promise to a deity) and analyzes how votive offerings in churches have evolved as expressions of gratitude for health and miracles Leahy, E. L. (2023). Ephemeral Icons: Construction and Representation of Temporary Votive Chapels in Old Russian Religious Rituals. Arts, 12(2), 80: This paper discusses the "one-day votive church" (obydenny khram) tradition in medieval Russia, where communities built churches in a single day to ward off the Black Death Zika, C. (2023). The Treasury Image of Mariazell: The Materialisation of Hope, Assurance and Security. Emotions: History, Culture, Society, 7(1), 52–: Explores the role of votive images and structures in Habsburg history as a response to collective threats like the Ottoman wars
de:Votivkirche