The complex was created in a place characterized by unusual past. The place dates back to 1800 when the Uphagen family decided to build their summer residence here.
The Uphagen family lived in the two-storey manor house until 1852 when Johan Ernest Uphagen’s widow, Maria Wilhelmina Uphagen, sold the house to a timber merchant with a view to building a hospital. Borromeo missionary sisters from Trier took care of the patients. Due to its growing needs, the hospital was gradually expanded and new buildings were added. Altogether the facility had undergone expansion three times.
The Borromeo sisters initiated the construction of the church and on 26th August 1857 a foundation stone was ceremonially fixed. The temple was designed by Julius August Licht and the construction was completed in 1860.
A copy of the cavern in Lourdes, surrounded by a fountain with a waterfall, was erected in the garden. The figure of Virgin Mary, which was the copy of Maria from Massabielle from 1858, was supposed to symbolize the immaculate conception.
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