Chapel of the Holy Oak, Oirschot

The Chapel of the Holy Oak lies in woodland beside the Beerze near Oirschot and remains one of North Brabant’s best-known Marian pilgrimage places. The present chapel dates from 1854, when it was rebuilt on the foundations of an earlier chapel, and it was enlarged to its current form in 1906. Visit Oirschot states that the building has been protected as a national monument since 1967.

The site’s sacred importance, however, rests on a much older Marian tradition. Local legend places the beginning in 1406, when a shepherd was said to have found a Marian image floating against the current of the Beerze and placed it in a hollow oak; the image was then believed to have returned to the oak after being taken elsewhere.

Historical devotional accounts also include stories of healing. Visit Oirschot reports that the cleric Jan Daems van Nuenen wrote in 1606 of his own recovery and financed a larger stone chapel, and it further reports a Catholic recognition of the miracle tradition in 1612. These are presented here as historical religious claims reported by the local tourism authority, not as medical proof. Visitors continue to pray, light candles and take part in Marian devotion at the chapel.