Unbuilt Sanctuary Basilicas

Within the larger context of pilgrimage studies, it makes sense to study unrealized plans for sanctuary buildings at pilgrimage sites. Architect drawings for pilgrimage sanctuaries imagine the future of the cult site, revealing the directors’ expectations, and disclosing the architect’s dreams. Nevertheless, scant attention is paid to them. The current study, based on Dutch examples, seeks to remedy this. It finds that the unbuilt basilicas expose the impossibility of the guiding ideas behind the failed schemes and demonstrates that these unrealized plans reflect above all, the fluctuations in the popularity of saints’ cults in the past and the present.