Hi there my Hivean friends and followers!
Today, I am excited to share something really special with you. A post that I have been meaning to publish here on my blog for quite some time already and it´s finally here :)
Honestly, I had a hard time deciding what community I should post it into as I was considering at least 3 of them - HaveYouBeenHere, Architecture+Design and Photography Lovers. Eventually, I decided to go for the latter as the post ended up featuring more than 30 photos that I took at, what I call for the purpose of this post, the Complex of the Krakow Sanktuarium.
I know, the preface sounds a bit confusing so let me try to explain. There is this special place in the Krakow neighborhood of Lagiewniki where there are these two monumental Roman Catholic architectural complexes very close to each other. One of them is dominated by the Sanctuary of the Divine Mercy and the other one by the John Paul II Center but both of these spots include many other interesting buildings and landmarks - from churches, monasteries, chapels and statues to pilgrimage sites and even whole museums, cemeteries and observation towers.
I did a research on these places on the internet but most of the info is in the Polish language only and even with translation, it was still quite difficult to distinguish between the locations so I figured it would be easier to just fuse them into one thing that I will refer to as the Complex of the Krakow Sanktuarium. The two complexes are actually just some 0.5 km (0.3 mi) apart and there are new paths and roads being built that will connect them so I guess this place will be eventually referred to as one complex in future anyway. Right now, from I saw on the site and I read on the internet, the part centered around the Sanctuary of the Divine Mercy is devoted to the Divine Mercy Devotion and also to Faustina Kowalska, a famous Polish nun and mystic who lived between 1905 and 1938 and who, during her short life, allegedly had several apparitions and conversations with Jesus. The nearby John Paul II Center is, as the name suggests, dedicated to the life and legacy of the Pope John Paul II.
We visited the complex on a beautiful sunny day a couple of weeks ago and spent there pretty much the whole day. Yet, we certainly didn´t see everything so if you want to explore this place really properly, you better reserve at least two days for it - one for each of the two parts. The vastness and complexity of the place also made it very hard for me to remember where exactly I took the photos so not to mix up it even more, I will just leave the photos without captions. The only thing that I do know for sure is that the shots portraying the Pope (in some form) were taken at the John Paul II Center :)
Without further ado, let me now take you on a little photography tour around the places that I described above.
I hope you enjoyed these photos. As I already mentioned, it was an unusually sunny and warm day and I think the beautiful architecture of the place contrasted nicely with the clear blue sky. The whole complex is a truly fascinating place and I would say that the term hidden gem fits it perfectly as most tourists and foreign visitors of Krakow have no idea about its existence. On the other hand, the place is very popular with Catholics, pilgrims and fans of Jan Paul II and it can get very crowded on some special occasions.
As you might have noticed in the pictures, there are also two observation towers in there, both offering some spectacular panoramic views of the city and its surroundings. We visited one the towers (the one facing the Divine Mercy Basilica) and I already shared some of the photos taken up there with you in this post.
Thanks for your attention everyone, have a nice day :)
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