Bar Confederates' Chapel on Mount Jasień

A walk from the Renaissance castle in Sucha Beskidzka up a forest path ends at a small stone chapel with a tower topped by an onion dome. It stands at about 500 m above sea level on the south-eastern ridge of Kocurowa Góra, also called Mount Jasień, and commemorates a battle that Sucha has remembered for two and a half centuries.

History

In 1771, during the Bar Confederation – an armed uprising of Polish nobles against Russian domination – confederate troops clashed on the slopes of Jasień with the Russian army of General Suvorov. According to tradition about 200 confederates died here, and Maurycy Beniowski, later a famous traveller and literary hero, was taken prisoner. Two years later, in 1773, the chapel was built in memory of the fight. In the 1980s it was a place of pro-independence demonstrations by local people.

What to see

• The chapel – built of local broken sandstone on a 6 × 4-metre plan with a small porch, mixing Renaissance features with Gothic and Neoclassical touches.
• The stone tower on the façade axis with a wooden hexagonal bell turret and an onion dome, about 12 metres high in total.
• A copy of the Black Madonna of Częstochowa on the altar.
• A symbolic grave of the fallen confederates with a cross beside the chapel.
• An information board of the town heritage trail telling the story of the site.

Tripto tip

A marked educational nature path leads up from the castle in Sucha, and a second, white-and-blue walking path climbs from the Błądzonka estate along the stream of the same name. The ascent is through forest and steep in places, so wear comfortable shoes. Allow about an hour there and back. Every year on 3 May and 15 August Masses for the homeland are held here – the best chance to see the interior.