Our Lady of Lebanon, Marian shrine in Harissa, Lebanon

Our Lady of Lebanon is a Marian shrine in Harissa whose 8.5-metre bronze statue, painted white, stands on a circular stone platform above a curved wall of rough-cut blocks. The crowned Virgin, robed and veiled, holds her hands open and palms forward, facing Beirut. The statue was assembled from seven sections on a stone base with a 64-metre lower perimeter.

In 1904 Maronite Patriarch Elias Hoayek bought the hilltop land at Harissa from Francis Yacoub Younes for fifty Ottoman gold liras. The 13-tonne bronze statue, donated anonymously by a French woman, was assembled from seven sections on a stone base and inaugurated on 3 May 1908. The Maronite Lebanese Missionaries have administered the shrine since its foundation.

The shrine welcomes visitors from different faith backgrounds who come to honor Mary as a figure of spiritual importance. This place of devotion brings together people from the surrounding region across religious lines.

The Téléphérique cable car runs from Jounieh up to Harissa, covering the climb from the coast to the 650 m hilltop. The shrine sits in pine woods above Jounieh Bay, 20 km north of Beirut. The Apostolic Nuncio to Lebanon and the residences of four Eastern Catholic patriarchs are in the vicinity.

The statue faces toward Beirut, creating a symbolic connection between the shrine and the capital city. This orientation gives the monument a personal relationship to the city and its people.