Where the John Paul the Great once lived.
Pope John Paul II, born Karol Józef Wojtyła, reigned as the Pope of the Roman Catholic Church for almost 27 years, from October 16, 1978 until his death, making his the second-longest pontificate. During his pontificate, Pope John Paul II made 104 foreign trips. Throughout his trips, he often stressed his devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary. He came into contact with many divergent faiths, with which he ceaselessly attempted to find common ground, whether doctrinal or dogmatic. He made history with his establishment of contacts with Israel, praying at the Western Wall in Jerusalem.
Since the death of John Paul II, a number of clergy at the Vatican have started referring to the late pontiff as "John Paul the Great"— only the fourth pope to be so acclaimed, and the first since the first millennium.
We invite you to a visit to the places where that Pope was born, raised and where he felt most at home.
Day 1: Krakow
afternoon: Arrival in Krakow. Transfer to your hotel for dinner and overnight.
Day 2: Krakow
morning: a walking tour of the ancient Krakow including the Wawel Hill with the Cathedral (diocesan museum) and the Castle, John Paul II Institute, Archbishop's Palace and St. Mary's Church with the famous wooden Wit Stwosz triptych altar as well as Collegium Maius - the oldest university building in this part of Europe, and the Old Town Market Square with Cloth Hall.
afternoon: visit to International St. Faustyna Shrine of Spirituality inaugurated by the Pope on his last visit to Poland in 2002, visit considered his farewell visit to his homeland. Krakow is where Karol Wojtyla as a young man came to study and spent his years as a priest, bishop and archbishop of Krakow before he was called into Vatican.
evening: return to your hotel for dinner and overnight.
Day 3: Krakow - Auschwitz - Czestochowa - Krakow
morning: a sad visit to the concentration camp at Auschwitz, now a museum honoring the victims of the Holocaust.
afternoon: drive to Czestochowa for the tour of the Black Madonna Shrine sanctuary - the holliest pilgrimage site in Poland, frequently visited by the Pope, also during his apostolic travels to Poland.
evening: return to Krakow to your hotel for dinner and overnight.
Day 4: Krakow -Zakopane
morning: drive to Zakopane, the mountain capital of Poland in the Tatra mountains. Karol Wojtyla often climbed the trails in the Tatras as a student and later as a professor of the Catholic University of Lublin. The tour of Zakopane comprises a visit to the beautiful, wooden Fatima shrine church. It was founded by the local people to thank God for saving the Pope's life after the attack in 1981. The church was blessed by John Paul II during his meeting with the highlanders in Zakopane in 1999.
afternoon: continue to the typical highlanders' village of Koscielisko with visit to the local timber church followed by a visit to the Morskie Oko Lake, nestling deep in the mountains, where the Pope spent some time during his stay in Zakopane in 1999.
evening: dinner and overnight at a local hotel in Zakopane
Day 5: Zakopane - Wadowice - Kalwaria Zebrzydowska -Krakow
morning: drive to Wadowice, the birthplace of Karol Wojtyla. Visit to his family house (today housing a museum) and the church where young Karol Wojtyla was baptised and attended masses as a child and later as a teenager.
afternoon: return to Krakow with a stop en route at Kalwaria Zebrzydowska, one of the most impressive passion and Marian sanctuaries in Poland. Karol Wojtyla visited the place with his father as a boy and later many times during his priestly life. During his first pilgrimage to Poland in 1979, the Pope said: "And I would like you to pray for me here, both during my life and after it."
evening: return to Krakow to your hotel for dinner and overnight.
Day 6: Krakow
morning: departure
