Leśna Podlaska is often referred to as the Częstochowa of Podlasie. The believers favour this place because of the holy image of the Protectress of Podlasie. The bas-relief, placed in the main altar, is made of field stone of a red shade. The image shows the Mother of God with Baby Jesus in her arms. The story of the painting begins in 1683, when two boys grazing cattle found a shining image on a wild pear tree. It was brought to Bukowice, whose owner decided to erect a wooden Roman Catholic church at the site of the revelation. The painting soon became famous for miracles and caused such an influx of believers that in 1695 a parish was founded in Leśna Podlaska. Five years later, Pauline Order from Częstochowa founded a monastery here and began building a large basilica church. Wincenty Rachetti, a Warsaw architect, gave the three-nave building a monumental expression, accented by a two-story and very wide facade with two towers. A large complex of monastery buildings, once hidden behind the defensive system of earth ramparts, moats and walls with shooting ranges, adjoins the church built in 1730-52. The sanctuary also includes the Apparition Chapel with a well in the place of the pear, on which on the 26th of September 1683 the miraculous image of the Mother of God was to appear for the first time.