Przeprośna Górka – Shrine of St Padre Pio

For many pilgrims walking to the Jasna Góra monastery in Częstochowa, this is the last stop and the first place from which they can see their goal – the monastery tower. On Przeprośna Górka (296 m above sea level) in Siedlec near Mstów, travellers have stopped for generations to ask each other's forgiveness before entering Częstochowa; the name means roughly "Hill of Apology". On the summit stands an octagonal church with Poland's first shrine to St Padre Pio.

The hill of reconciliation

The hill, also called Gąszczyk, lies just outside the Częstochowa city boundary, on the Mirów–Olsztyn Upland near the Warta river gorge at Mstów. Its steep northern slope is covered by oak-hornbeam woodland. The writer Władysław Reymont described the custom in his reportage "Pilgrimage to Jasna Góra", based on a walk he made in 1894: on the hill the pilgrims gave their last speeches and quietly apologised to one another.

The custom is commemorated by the Chapel of Our Lady of Reconciliation beside the shrine. It holds a copy of the Black Madonna of Częstochowa painted by Father Augustyn Jędrzejczyk – according to the shrine's custodians, earlier than his famous copy given to Pope Pius XI for the chapel at Castel Gandolfo. In 2025 the chapel was restored on the initiative of a Pauline monk from Jasna Góra.

The shrine of St Padre Pio

The church was built by the Work "…in the Service of Divine Mercy", a community founded by Padre Pio's spiritual son, Father Domenico Labellarte. The foundation stone, brought from the Mount of Beatitudes in the Holy Land, was blessed in 1994 by Archbishop Stanisław Nowak, who on Christmas Eve 2001 proposed creating a shrine to Padre Pio here. The church was consecrated in 2011.

The building stands on an octagonal plan and has two levels. The upper church is known as the Church of the Eight Beatitudes, dedicated to the Archangels Michael, Gabriel and Raphael. The lower chapel holds a statue and relics of St Padre Pio.

What to see

• The Stations of the Cross by Szymon Wypych: stoneware and Jurassic limestone stations built around the motif of an open Bible, with Padre Pio as the narrator.
• The Rosary Way around the church.
• The view over Częstochowa and the Jasna Góra tower.

Tripto tip

Mass is celebrated on Sundays at 10:00 and 16:00, on Fridays after the Stations of the Cross at 17:00, and on other days at 17:00 (as of October 2026, according to the shrine's website). From Częstochowa, take city bus no. 26 towards TKKF Pegaz/Siedlec. The red Wieluń Jura Trail crosses the hill, and the shrine also lies on the Marian Way from Mariazell to Częstochowa. Allow about an hour to walk round the hill with the chapel and the Stations of the Cross.