Churches to visit in Krakow

[beatitude]

I'm in Krakow this week. Most of my time is taken up by a conference, but I have one free day (Sunday). I would like to use it to visit churches and holy sites, but I don't know Poland well at all.  Anyone with any suggestions?

[Norseman82]

I'm in Krakow this week. Most of my time is taken up by a conference, but I have one free day (Sunday). I would like to use it to visit churches and holy sites, but I don't know Poland well at all.  Anyone with any suggestions?

​I've never been to Krakow (or to Poland for that matter), but my first suggestion would be Wawel Cathedral.  Also, Wikipedia has an article on notable churches in Krakow:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archdiocese_of_Krak%C3%B3w

And I don't know how your Polish is, but here is the Archdiocese of Krakow website:

http://www.diecezja.pl/

If you are looking to visit outside the city and are willing to travel, I would suggest the Jasna Góra monastery in Częstochowa, which is the site of the icon of Our Lady of Częstochowa, also known as the Black Madonna.  Częstochowa is roughly 150 km from Krakow, according to a Polish atlas I have, so it would make a good day trip.

Edited April 24, 2015 by Norseman82

[NadaTeTurbe]

All of them 

Ahem. Go to see the Wawel Cathedral, the Kościół Mariacki (St Mary's Basilica) (I personnaly find St Mary's more pretty than Wawel inside...), Saint Stanislas Church may be modern outside but it have lovely glass (http://www.krakow4u.pl/eng_index.php?parametr=koscioly/salezjanow/eng_salezjanow ), Corpus Cristi Church is beautiful (http://www.krakow4u.pl/eng_index.php?parametr=koscioly/bozecialo/eng_bozecialo ), but no one is as beautiful thant St Francis of Assisi Church ! http://www.krakow4u.pl/eng_index.php?parametr=koscioly/franciszek/eng_franciszek

If you don't have many time, I would advise you do to St Mary's Basilica and St Francis of Assisi CHurch. 

[beatitude]

Norse, I'd love to travel outside Krakow, but Sunday is my only free day and a friend is making the train trip from Prague to see me here, so we will be restricted to Krakow itself. I will definitely go to Wawel - I see there is a Latin Mass there at 9:00 (my best option if I want a service I can understand at all!  ).

NadaTeTurbe, I am staying in the Old Town just down the road from St Mary's, and I went to pray the rosary there just now. I will discover the others on Sunday! Thanks.

[Spem in alium]

Enjoy Krakow! Szczęść Boże!

Edited April 25, 2015 by Spem in alium

[Norseman82]

OK, this worries me - my reputation is now 666?

Thanks, Spem! 

[Spem in alium]

OK, this worries me - my reputation is now 666?

Thanks, Spem! 

​Happy to help.

[NadaTeTurbe]

Beatitude, post pictures, if you can ! And don't forget to eat in the little street shop and bakery ! 

[Norseman82]

So how did it go?

[beatitude]

I had a wonderful time.  I visited Wawel Cathedral and St Mary's Basilica, and I ended up going to a second Sunday Mass at a little church on the outskirts of the Old Town whose name I don't know. I just happened to see some nuns streaming into it when I was out for a sunset walk in the park (the Old Town is surrounded by a beautiful one, which amusingly to me is called the Planty) and I decided to go in and see what was happening. It was Mass in the EF. It's only a little church, not famous or touristy (I couldn't find it in the descriptions of Krakow's churches) but the Mass was beautiful. Even though it was seven at night, the place was packed. Everyone was also very reverent. In all the churches I visited, no one was talking or fidgeting. I've never been in a majority Catholic country before and that felt quite special. (Of course, it may not be like this everywhere you go in Poland - I don't want to idealise things based on a couple of days spent wandering around Old Krakow.) But it was very refreshing for me.

I visited Birkenau on the Saturday. An elderly friend (the daughter of survivors, born in England in 1945) had given me the names of her grandparents and several aunts, uncles, and cousins who were killed there, and she had asked me to pray for them. She hasn't ever felt able to visit the camp herself. It was harder than I expected to fulfill her request. It sounds cliched, but when I reached the camp no vocal prayer felt right - i was just wordless. I ended up just kneeling in silence at the edge of the railway line. No other visitors were there at that hour of the morning so I was not disturbed. That is another memory that will stay with me.

On a happier note...the food! It was so cheap! And delicious! I ate about six dinners every day, not to speak of the breakfasts. I'd go back for the food alone. The alcohol situation was a bit of an issue for someone who rarely drinks. On the second night I went to a bar with a couple of other PhD students from the conference and I ordered tea. It came with unannounced vodka in it. That was unexpected. When I told the bartender I didn't want to drink, he said, "What would you like instead? We have wine." It took some time for me to register that here wine apparently doesn't count as real alcohol.

I'm definitely putting Poland on my list of places to explore further! I'd like to see the places associated with JPII and St Faustina, but there was no time for that.

[NadaTeTurbe]

I'm happy you liked it. 
I feel you about Birkenau. When I was in Dachau, where a part of my family was deported, I was speechless, I had headtache, and I did not think about God, because I was so sad and angry - if I thought about God in this moment, I would have ended atheist. 

Food is good in the East of Europe. Hungary and Austra have some of the best food in the world, if you're not vegan of course ! And about alcohol, I don't count wine as alcohol, because nobody get drunk with wine/drink wine to get drunk, you drink wine because it goes well with the food. I count wine as alcohol when I have medication that forbid alcohol but it's sad because in french we said "repas sans vin (ou pain), repas de rien", "meals without wine (or bread), is not a real meals." People who drink wine alone, without food, make me crazy  

I you come bak to poland, you have to go in the countryside around the Danube ! It's sooooooooo beautifull ! It's so sad Ukraine is so dangerous this time, because when I was in Poland, we did a quick travel in Ukraine, and we ate so well, also. But there's also Czech, and Prague, next to Poland, so it is good for you. I assure you, if you go to Czech, you will forgot everything about the beauty of Poland, or of Wyoming, or whatever beautifull place you have ever been. It's like a disney world that is real. And people are more friendly here. I hope you come back here one day !