Walking. Gossip. Travel.

Tag: Częstochowa

  • Częstochowa – Jasna Góra Monastery

    Częstochowa – Jasna Góra Monastery

    This is Jasna Góra, one of the holiest places in Poland, a Catholic monastery and shrine to which many pilgrims walk.

    This is certainly a secure site, I had to walk through four gates to get into the heart of the monastic complex. These gates are the Lubomirskis’ Gate, the Gate of Our Lady of Victory, the Gate of Our Lady of Sorrows and then finally the Jagiellonian Gate. There were a couple of men trying to extract donations for their personal needs standing outside of the first gate, no doubt hoping that pilgrims would be generous. They didn’t invest too much time in me as they didn’t speak English, which was handy on this occasion.

    The reason that this site is so secure is that it is has come under attack almost from when work on the monastery started in 1382, when the Paulines came to the country. The attacks continued for centuries as numerous wars and conflicts played out in the wider area. It’s also fair to say that the Germans didn’t really like this monastery during their occupation of Poland during the Second World War. They took the site over, controlled the monks and ended the pilgrimages, with Nazi leaders such as Hans Frank coming to interfere with arrangements on numerous occasions. They then tried to burn down the entire site in January 1945, but they ran out of time with the Soviets closing in on the Germans.

    The entrance to the basilica and this has been a much visited location by Popes in recent decades. Pope John Paul II, who was Polish, visited here on six occasions when he was the head of the Catholic Church, with Pope Benedict XVI visiting in 2006 and Pope Francis visiting in 2016.

    The grand nave of the basilica. I didn’t take too many photos as this is a revered location and there were services going on in part of the building. There was a peaceful presence in the basilica, although I understand that it’s a little more lively when groups of pilgrims come in after their long walks.

    I didn’t take a photo, for reasons of a service taking place, but the monastery is known for the Black Madonna.

    There’s a whole complex of buildings on the site, with the arsenal building in the centre of the photo. A cold Thursday morning in mid-November isn’t going to be a time when the monastery is particularly busy, but in the summer it seems from photos as if this would be quite crowded.

    I left from a different gate, this one known as the John Paul II Gate, although this area was still heavily fortified.

    Beautiful and historic as the buildings are, the whole complex did feel a little commercialised to me, although perhaps that’s a necessity of running a major pilgrimage site. Certainly pilgrimage sites were commercialised in the medieval period, so there’s nothing new there. But there were numerous money making projects going on, not just the selling of religious imagery, but also offices to donate to the refurbishment project and a host of food outlets with some quite garish signage. However, the basilica is beautiful and the site felt calm and peaceful. The defensive arrangement around the monastery also really adds to the whole pilgrimage, especially walking down Aleja Najświętszej Maryi Panny w Częstochowie to get here.

  • Częstochowa – Aleja Najświętszej Maryi Panny w Częstochowie

    Częstochowa – Aleja Najświętszej Maryi Panny w Częstochowie

    Mainly just photos in this post, but I was impressed with this street in Częstochowa (the English version is Avenue of the Blessed Virgin Mary) which was constructed in the 1820s to connect the old and new parts of the city. It goes from Plac Ignacego Daszyńskiego in the east to the monastery of Jasna Góra in the west, with Plac Władysława Biegańskiego roughly in the centre. More on Jasna Góra in other posts, but this is now part of a pilgrimage route, something which has been important to the city for centuries.

    There are three avenues, two of which are used for cars and the central one which is primarily for walkers. During the German period of occupation it was renamed Adolf Hitler Allee, inevitable that he’d want the major street in the city named after him.

    It’s nicely done and although the weather was a bit overcast today, it makes this quite a spiritual final section of the walk for pilgrims, with the monastery above at the end of the road.

    More photos along the route and there are some sculptures along it, more of which in later posts.

  • PKP Intercity : Warsaw to Częstochowa

    PKP Intercity : Warsaw to Częstochowa

    Today’s little adventure began at Warszawa Centralna, the city’s main railway station. The station was built in the 1970s and is an impressive and open structure, replacing the remains of the Warszawa Główna railway station which was nearly entirely lost during the Second World War.

    There are plenty of screens indicating the platform numbers and there are escalators down to the tracks.

    I like these screens, they make it relatively easy to know where to stand on the platform to board the train. I fail to understand why the British railway network has never managed to implement this, I don’t really understand why this is so complex. I know that it has been done in a few railway stations, but generally it’s a stand and hope you’re in the right place policy for those catching a train.

    That meant I was departing from Platform 3, Track 4 and Sector 2. I had a reserved seat which was carriage 12 and seat number 36, so I felt that I had all the information that I needed.

    The platforms are long, this is only about half its length.

    I’m always pleased to see confirmation on the signage that I’m at the right platform and at the right railway station. My service was the train departing at 10:10 and arriving into Częstochowa at 12:55, a journey time of two hours and 45 minutes.

    The train isn’t one of the more modern set-ups, here it is arriving into the railway station. They’re also not the easiest to get on and off, there’s quite a step to get into it and so it isn’t ideal for those with limited mobility to access without assistance.

    This meant that it was a carriage train, something I’m not hugely keen on. There has been a move towards open carriages and I prefer that to these eight person compartments.

    There were three of us in this compartment for most of the journey, so plenty of space as it can seat up to eight people. There were eight or so stops along the route, with everything running to clockwork in terms of the timing. I’d add that I took this photo when one of the passengers left the compartment, we weren’t all sitting on the same side. I didn’t need power for electrical devices, but another one of the passengers did and was unable to find it in this area, although she disappeared with her phone charger for some time and so I imagine there’s a power point somewhere.

    Also, it looks from the photo that it’s possible to see across the tops of the compartment, but that’s just the mirror and it is sealed quite tightly other than for the door. There’s a handy metal bar running along the base of the seats which is useful for putting feet on, saving passengers doing that annoying thing of putting their feet on the seats. The seats were adequate and were cushioned, but I didn’t think that they were as comfortable as those on most modern British trains.

    The corridor down the side of the train and a refreshments trolley did work its way up and down. The conductor was friendly when checking my ticket, although I proffered my passport and he said that he didn’t need it, although I thought they were checking them. He didn’t speak any English, but my very limited Polish is enough to understand “ticket please” and “can you make the screen larger?”, but that was the limit of the verbal interchange.

    And safely into Częstochowa railway station, which isn’t entirely obvious as I think that it looks like a shopping centre, but the service was on time and everything was smooth and efficient. The journey cost £9.80 (and I booked that at https://mt.rozklad-pkp.pl/en which is the official web-site of the rail company), which I thought was entirely reasonable given the distance travelled.