Kalwaria

Kalwaria 400 Years
Kalwaria 400 lat
Photographs: Adam Bujak
Text: Mikołaj Rudyk

The Sanctuary in Kalwaria Zebrzydowska is one of the most often visited pilgrimage places in Poland, and is also recognized as one of the most interesting landscape and architecture establishments in Europe. More than one million pilgrims visit the Shrine annually. Most frequented are the Holy Week celebrations with Glorious Passion Mystery as well as the Funeral and the Glory of Our Lady celebrations in August. The Sanctuary is composed of the Baroque basilica of Our Lady of the Angels, the Bernardine monastery and a set of Baroque and Manneristic churches and chapels, laid out on the area of 6 km, composed into the picturesque Beskidy landscape, their topographical and architectural arrangement resembling the holy places in Jerusalem. Thus being in its own a "peculiar copy of the Jerusalem Via Dolorosa" with chapel for meditation over the Sufferings of Our Lord Jesus and Mysteries of His Holy Mother's life.

"My fascination with Kalwaria Zebrzydowska and my fascination with Passion Mysteries have continued for nearly forty years. In April 1963, for the first time I drove there for Palm Sunday to photograph the famous celebrations beginning the Holy Week, Kalwaria's hermits and pilgrims on the pathways. Waiting for the next day of the Holy Week, I stayed overnight with them, in the church... half drowsing in a confessional. Back then, I experienced the feeling of unique brotherhood. I met with the spirituality and piousness of people, who kept arriving there. The magnitude of emotions that came to me during that first stay made me return again and again to this remarkable place, to this striking sanctuary.
~ Adam Bujak

Publishing House: Biały Kruk, Kraków 2001
HardCover book measuring 9.45" x 12.6" x 0.9"
228 pages
Trilingual Polish/English/German Language Version