The Marian pilgrimage site of Ľutina lies on the southern slope of the Čergov mountains in the valley of the Ľutinka stream. The hill Ľutinská hora became known to the public as the place of alleged apparitions of St. Nicholas. The oldest written record of the village goes back to 1330. The apparition happened in 1851 – the saint donated a Marian icon to Zuzana Fekete, making Ľutina the largest Greek Catholic Marian pilgrimage site in Slovakia. There was originally a wooden temple in the village. Over time, however, it proved small for the growing number of believers and thus in 1908 a new stone temple was built. Shortly before its completion, the original wooden temple burned down. After the restoration of the Greek Catholic Church in 1968, the number of pilgrims to the site gradually increased. During the 1988 pilgrimage, Ján Hirka read the Brevi apostolici in which Pope John Paul II made the Ľutina church and adjacent buildings the basilica minor. At the suggestion of the Archbishop of Prešov and Metropolitan Ján Babjak SJ, the basilica was connected with the hill Ľutinská hora by the Way of Light – the path lined by 14 chapels depicting fourteen apparitions, including the Feast of the Resurrection and the Feast of the Descent of the Holy Spirit. The new path lined by double chapels leads along the forest.
Another dominant feature of the basilica complex is the wooden church of the Holy Family standing on a rock above the basilica. The temple boasts with a tower offering breathtaking views of the whole area. The Way of the Cross was made at the time the Church of the Holy Family and the Way of Light were made. It begins at the Chapel of St. Nicholas and ends at a wooden temple on the hill. The whole complex includes two parallel sidewalks with a stream between them, as well as a mini outdoor museum with replicas of all wooden temples from Slovakia and several rare buildings from neighbouring Ukraine and Poland.
Ľutinská hora is located about 800 meters from the basilica. It is a place where thousands of believers gather every year to make a pilgrimage and attend various liturgical and prayer celebrations. There are four chapels on the Ľutinská hora: Chapel of St. Nicholas with a spring, Chapel of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary with liturgical space, Chapel of St. Anne and Chapel and St. Cross.
