Kalwaria Zebrzydowska

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Kalwaria Zebrzydowska
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HISTORY
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The beginnings of Kalwaria Zebrzydowska sanctuary
date back to 1600 when Mikolaj Zebrzydowski, the
Governor of Cracow, erected the Christ
Crucifixion chapel on Zarek mount (within the
massive of Zar). The chapel was based on a
plaster model of the Jerusalem Holy Cross Chapel
brought from Jerusalem by Hieronim Strzala, a
courtier from Lanckorona castle. On 4th October
1600 Zebrzydowski set in the erection stone for
building the chapel consecrated as a church a
year later by a papal nuncio, Claudio Rangoni
assisted by a Cracovian bishop Bernard
Maciejowski on
4th October 1601, which was the beginning of the
future Calvary. A short time later Mikolaj
Zebrzydowski decided to build the Christs
Sepulchre Chapel (based on the Jerusalem Christs
Sepulchre model) and a small monastery with a
church. They were erected to the design of an
Italian architect, a Jesuit, Giovanni Maria
Bernardoni and Paul Baudarth, a Flemish architect
and goldsmith.
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• A Cracovian bishop, Piotr Tylicki, consecrated
  the church with the name of Our Lady of the
  Angels on 4th October 1609. Reading the book by
  Christian Adrichomius describing Jerusalem in the
  times of Christ had a crucial meaning for the
  development of Kalwaria. Having read it, around
  1604, Mikolaj Zebrzydowski decided to found the
  Passion of Christ stations modelled on Jerusalem.
  The idea was supported by his conviction that the
  location of his lands between Lanckorona and Zar
  mounts resembled the situation of Jerusalem.
  Zarek hill was called Golgotha, a hill near
  Lanckorona Mount of Olives, a hill in the
  vicinity of todays "Caiaphas House" Chapel
  Zion Mount, an elevation under the future Pilatus
  Praetorium Moriah Mount, and the Skawinka River
  was called the Kidron. Zebrzydowskis friend,
  priest Feliks Zebrowski, a mathematician and
  astronomer, measured the area for the future
  chapels.

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Mystery of the Place
The thing, which attracts a man here again is
that mystery of uniting the Mother with the Son
and the Son with the Mother. The mystery is told
artistically and generously by all chapels and
churches, which are located around the central
basilica. John Paul II in Kalwaria Zebrzydowska
on 7th June, 1979
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The Passion of Christ Devotion - Kalwarian
Avenues
The Jesus Christ Avenues service, modelled on
Jerusalem celebrations, developed within the
first years of after the Calvarys construction.
Since then it has always created the main form of
passion piety in Kalwaria Zebrzydowska. There is
a specific ritual of this service containing of
various meditations, prayers and songs said
(sung) successively at 28 stations of Christs
Passion. Initially the service was held on
holidays Finding (3rd
May) and Heightening (14th September) the Holy
Cross, on each Lent Friday and particularly on
Good Friday. Later, and so it has been so far,
there appeared a habit of holding the service by
individual groups of pilgrims or individual
pilgrims during both Kalwarian indulgence fairs
with Good Week and Assumption indulgence fairs
especially and besides them while on pilgrimage
to Kalwaria.
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Our Lady of the Angels Basilica
The Basilica is composed of a high and wide nave
with four bays separated by pilasters, of a
narrower and lower rectangular presbytery, of a
monastic quire (behind the great altar) and of
adjoining south side chapels, Our Lady of
Kalwaria, St. Anthonys and The Chapel of
Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
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Kalwarian Avenues
Here Mary and Her Son, His Work and Her
participation intermingle with one another. That
is why the concept of the Avenues is remarkable.
The first are the Avenues of Jesus Christ His
enlarged Way of the Cross. At the same time the
same Way of the Cross of Jesus Christ in another
dimension and another direction creates the
Avenues of the Mother of God where we consider
Her sorrows, Her burial... at last Her
Assumption. Cardinal Karol Wojtyla in Kalwaria
Zebrzydowska, 29th April, 1969
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Marian Devotion Our Lady of Kalwaria
Marias devotion in Kalwaria Zebrzydowska had its
beginnings at the times of Mikolaj Zebrzydowski.
It was Mikolaj Zebrzydowski who procured the
title of Our Lady of the Angels for the main
church in the front altar of which he put Her
silver statue.
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Kalwaria on the UNESCO World Heritage List
Kalwaria Zebrzydowska as a historical
architectural, park landscape and pilgrimage
complex - the basilica, the Franciscan monastery
and the avenues- which is of a unique cultural,
natural and religious value was inscribed in
the UNESCO World Heritage List on 1st December
1999 as the only Calvary in the world, and there
are more than one thousand of them in Europe,
during a session of the UNESCO World
Heritage Committee in Marrakesh, Morocco. The
inscription took place under the name Kalwaria
Zebrzydowska the Mannerist architectural and
park landscape complex and pilgrimage park.
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The committee inscribed Kalwaria on the basis of
the following criteria 1. Kalwaria
Zebrzydowska is an exceptional cultural monument
in which the natural landscape was used as a
setting for a symbolic representation in the form
of chapels and avenues of the events of the
Passion of Christ. The result is a cultural
landscape of great beauty and spiritual quality
in which natural and made elements combine in a
harmonious manner.   2. The Counter Reformation
in the late 16th century led to a flowering in
the creation of Calvaries in Europe. Kalwaria
Zebrzydowska is an outstanding example of this
type of large-scale landscape design, which
incorporates natural beauty with spiritual
objectives and the principles of Baroque park
design.  
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