HISTORY

According to legend, the origin of the Bled Lake in the heart of the Upper Carniola (Gorenjsko) is to be attributed to an act of God, a punishment for the negligent local people who failed to enclose the Madonna's Chapel; situated amid pastures, cattle often invade it, thus profanating the sanctuary.

The lake itself is of glacier origin and dates back approximately 13800 years. The final shape of the island is the work of human hands, archeological escavations carried out in the years 1962-1965 established that it was inhabited already in the 7th century B.C. However, some findings lead to the presumption that it may already have been inhabited during the Stone Age, in the period of the Neolithic. The most significant archeological discovery was by Vinko Šribar, director of excavations, who uncovered a vast cemetery revealing more than one hundred graves dating from the 8th and 9th century A.D. Tthey serve as a confirmation of the existence of an Old Slavic cemetery, i.e. a settlement of the Koettlach cultural group, on the island. A small sanctuary dedicated to the nativity of the Virgin indubitably stood on the island already during that time.

The wooden chapel was presumably reconstructed into a small church with a rectangular, flat ceilinged nave and a semicircular altar — abside not long after.

The chapel is first mentioned in written documents in the year 1185, when it probably had a nave and two aisles. It was enlarged during the episcopate of the Brixen bishops, who were given the propriety by the emperor Henry II in the year 1004; with further concessions they also became landlords by the year 1073, amounting to a vast propriety in the Upper Sava Valley. The bishops named the provost, usually the most age-old canon of the Brixen Episcopacy, out of their likes. It was the duty of the provost to say mass in church on Sundays, on religious holidays and twice a week. As the provost's house was not located in Bled, he had a substitute, a chaplain, inferior to him in rank, confirmed by the Brixen Ordinariat. The territory south of the Drava river was under the dominion of the Aquilea Patriarchy; this is why the bishops were often disputing with Aquilea regarding the island. The dispute was first settled in favour of the Brixen Episcopacy in the mid 15th century. However, the controversies with Brixen continued even after the establishment of the Ljubljana Episcopacy in the year 1461 and went on till 1688, when the Church passed under the propriety of the Ljubljana Episcopacy and the Brixen bishop was bestowed the right to use its relics.

During that time the temple was often rebuilt. The previous romanesque forms were substituted by gothic shapes in the mid 15th century with the characteristically sharpened window forms and triple-rounded, probably star-vaulted altar, decorated with Bible scenes. Reconstructed as such, the building was consacrated by the Ljubljana bishop Žiga Lamberg in the year 1465.

The building underwent new reconstructions after the earthquake in 1511 and was consecrated in 1523 by the then bishop Kristof Raubar.

The Baroque church of today was built in 1698 upon the foundations of the ancient walls, the proof of which are the remains of the former Gothic spans on the southern façade.

The "Wish bell" is certainly the most significant point of reference for pilgrims that have been visiting the place since the Middle Ages. It hangs from the tower on top of the ship roof. The bell was probably a donation of a wealthy parishioner and it seems to have been inculcated by Francesco Patavini da Padua in 1534. According to a legend, a young widow who lived at Bled Castle mourned her husband who had been killed by brigands. She gathered all her gold and silver and had a bell cast for the chapel on Bled Island. When the bell was being transported to the island, a tempest caused the boat to overturn. The boatmen drowned and the bell sank to the bottom of the lake. The young widow, now even more devastated, decided to go to Rome and enter a convent. After her death, the Pope donated another bell for the church on the Isle of Bled. The legend has it that those who ring the bell to honour the Blessed Virgin and make a wish will see their wish come true.

The larger bell was cast in the workshop of Master Anton Samassa in Ljubljana in 1737 and hangs in the imposing self-standing church tower together with two other bells made in the workshop of Gašpar Franchi. The tower's lower part is still of the Gothic period. The central part was rebuilt after the 1511 earthquake, when the tower was badly damaged and reconstructed in wood. It was scrupulously reconstructed only in 1680; however, the roof was remade twice, due to thunder striking in the years 1688 and 1782, when it finally attained the form it shows today.

The Baroque statue of Mary Magdalene below the tower and the Gothic lighthouse near the southern entrance to the church are also worth visiting.

The island underwent the largest number of interventions during the 17th century. The remarkable southern staircase, comprising almost  one hundred steps, dates back to that period. The staircase leads to the central plateau with the sanctuary, which was commissioned by the castle administrator and provostship propriety tenant Maks Petschacher, whose name is also inscribed on the stone plate in the chapel of Holy Virgin by the staircase.

Pilgrims have always visited the island and they would spend the night in the provost's house, a large storeyed house by the church. The top storey was added in 1787, so that the house could tend not only to the pilgrims but also to the church administrator and the provost when visiting Bled. In the inventory of 1669 it is mentioned as a guest-quarters and vestry, thus it can be deduced that it was at first also the home of the sacristan. As it is only referred to as a guest-quarters in the inventory of 1721, presumably a new house was built for the sacristan — a sacristy located by the main staircase under the provost's house.

After the year 1707 one of the two chaplans also lived in the sacristy, while the other was probably moved into the administration building of the provost's house along the lake's bank, which for years hosted the Bled school. Indeed, after the year 1787 the building served only for school purposes.

There is another, smaller building along the bank behind the church; it is called the Hermitage. First built as a wooden construction prior to 1636, it was used by the priest — hermit Michael Waidmann and it later served as a home for the priests — hermits who subsequently settled on the island to seek calm and peace. There is no data disclosing when the building was then made of stone. Today's form of the building dates back to the year 1852 when the parish priest Simon Peharc turned it into a guest-house for the pilgrims.

That same year the stone staircase leading down to the northern bank of the island was built; there stands, entrenched into the stone bank, the Chapel of the Holy Virgin Mary of Lourdes.