Jasna Gora in Częstochowa - Station 01 - Błonia Park

Description

Your heartily welcome in one of the most important and most popular places of pilgrimage in Poland and one of the most important in the world. The icon of Our Lady of Częstochowa is today the most famous image of the Madonna and the Child, which since the time of the Swedish deluge is considered to be miraculous. Jasna Gora in Czestochowa attracts about 5 million pilgrims and tourists every year.

During this tour you will discover the monastery through sixteen voice records. On the map, which you can download from our website along with the records, there are numbers corresponding to the relative tracks played on your device. When you will find yourself in a marked location, you can select the corresponding number and then listen to the record. At any time you can stop and call for another playback. Note that you are in religious place, so, please, remain calm and quiet. Visiting the cathedral and the chapel during Mass is prohibited. If you are ready to start exploring, we invite you to listen to the first part of our story. The walking tour starts at the Błonia Park of Jasna Góra, where there is an altar before the summit, built specially to celebrate open-air Masses. This is the place where the Blessed Pope John Paul II celebrated the Eucharist during his pilgrimage to Poland. Behind the altar there is the basilica of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary and the Discovery of the Holy Cross (photo 01.01.001). The summit of the rear facade is topped by the statues of two evangelists, St. Luke and St. John, and the sculptures of Peter the Hermit and St. Anthony the Hermit (photo 01.01.002). On the right of the basilica there is the richly decorated facade of the Chapel of the Miraculous Icon (photo 01.01.003). The chapel is topped with a gold cross with a gold letter M and the golden statue of the Madonna and the Child. Below there is a replica of the Miraculous Icon of the Black Madonna surrounded by a group of carved angels. On the facade there are also two inscriptions in Latin. Loosely translated, the top one means "I let my seed serve you" and “Beneath your compassion, O Mother of God". Next to the chapel on the right, there is the magnificent building of the monastery of the Pauline (photo 01.01.004). On the Błonia Park there is also a column with a statue depicting the Virgin Mary (photo 01.01.005), which greets the pilgrims arriving in Jasna Góra. The last part of the road of the pilgrims is the Avenue of the Blessed Virgin Mary, or, in short, the Marian Avenue (photo 01.01.006). This road was settled in the 19th century and it is about one and half kilometres long and 44 metres wide. Nowadays, it is the most representative part of Częstochowa, in which there are most of the monuments. The Błonia of Jasna Góra is surrounded by a group of contemporary sculptures depicting all the mysteries of the Rosary (photo 01.01.007-01.01.026).

We suggest now to sit on one of the benches and listen to the history of Jasna Gora.

The beginnings of the monastery date back to 1382, when the Prince Władysław of Opole invited the Pauline to Częstochowa and founded a monastery. The name of Jasna Góra was given by the Hungarian Pauline in remembrance of the home monastery of St. Lawrence of Jasna Gora in Buda. In 1384, from Rus’ to the hill of Jasna Gora was brought the painting of Our Lady with the Child Jesus, which according to legend was painted by Saint Luke the Evangelist itself on the wooden table where Jesus’ family used to eat. Originally, there was a wooden church here, but in order to protect the image this modest brick chapel of dressed stone was built. Its simplicity and the white colour refer to the simplicity of the Pauline spirit. The increase of the pilgrimage movement to Jasna Góra forced the monastic buildings to be expanded. In the first half of the 17th century, the defensive walls were built mainly because of the threat of the Swedes. During the Swedish deluge the monastery of Jasna Góra was besieged and became famous for the brave attitude of its monks, who did not allow it to be seized. The defence of Jasna Góra was impressed permanently in the pages of Polish history.

Over the next years, until 1770, Jasna Góra did not play any role in other hostilities. At this time, however, an event extremely important took place: by an act of the Pope Clement XI in 1716, the Bishop of Chełm, Krzysztof Andrzej Jan Szembek, the 8 September 1717 crowned the icon of Jasna Góra.

After the fall of the Bar Confederation and the announcement by King Stanislaw August Poniatowski about the capitulation of Jasna Gora, the monastery passed into the hands of the Russians. At the time of the partition of Poland the repression of the monastery was intensified and the sanctuary itself was repeatedly plundered.

During World War II some of the rooms of the monastery were occupied by the Nazi army and the monks themselves were controlled. Among other thing even the collective pilgrimages were limited. The Pauline replaced the icon in the main altar with a copy, and they hid the original in the monastery. It was attached under one of the two tables in the Library of the Convent. Jasna Góra at that time became a shelter for guerrillas, as well as Jews.

The long and often tragic history of Jasna Góra monastery, however, did not cause significant damage to its structure, so that today you can admire it in all its glory.

We invite you now to the second stop. Along the way, among the trees you will see the column of St. Prokop, coming from the Baroque time (photo 01.01.027).