The present parish church of Marija Bistrica was built between 1879 and 1882 according to the design of the Viennese architect Schmidt, and under the supervision of his pupil Herman Bollé. It was partly built on old Baroque foundations and extended in the neo-Renaissance style. The painter Ferdo Quiquerez painted 22 miracles of the Bistrica Mother of God, and D. Novak made the statues of Crucified Christ and St Cristopher.

During the construction, on the eve of the feast of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary, a fire broke out which destroyed the entire interior of the church, with the exception of the great altar and the miraculous statue of the Mother of God. The new altar was consecrated in 1883 and Pope Pio XI classified the church in Bistrica as a small basilica in 1923. In 1935, Antun Bauer, the Archbishop of Zagreb, assisted by the Archbishop Aloysius Stepinac, crowned the miraculous statue of the Mother of God with a golden crown and declared her the Queen of Croats.