Jasna Górka Sanctuary in Ślemień

The story of Jasna Górka begins with a miracle that – as the parish itself admits – someone decided to "make". According to tradition, in the mid-14th century a highlander from Ślemień, back from a pilgrimage to Częstochowa, dipped a holy picture he had brought home into a forest spring, and news of an apparition quickly spread. From this tale grew a cult that survived an armed raid and today draws pilgrims to a church on a hillside above Ślemień in the Little Beskids.

History: a spring, a raid and a revival

The clearing where it all began was called Kumorkowy Groń. The spring became known for healings, and in the 17th century a chapel was built beside it. When the Komorowski family brought a miraculous painting to the church in nearby Rychwałd in 1623, people kept coming to the clearing near Ślemień anyway. According to the parish chronicle, the parish priests of Rychwałd and Sucha, seeing a threat to their income, led an armed raid on the hill, filled in the spring and demolished the chapel.

The cult revived in the mid-19th century, when a Ślemień villager, Józef Pochopień, paid for a statue of the Virgin that still stands today and built a small shrine. The present church was built in 1866 by Fr Antoni Antałkiewicz to mark the 900th anniversary of Poland's baptism. The sanctuary's fame grew fast: around 15,000 pilgrims from southern Poland, Orava, Hungary and Silesia came to the church festival in 1868.

What to see

• The Baroque high altar with four columns and figures of St Casimir and St John of Kęty, crowned with the dove of the Holy Spirit.
• The painting of Our Lady of Częstochowa – a 19th-century copy painted on wood by Błażej Luks, donated in 1871 by Franciszka Witkowska and crowned in 2016 by Cardinal Stanisław Dziwisz. It is covered by two sliding panels: one with St Anne and St Joachim, the other showing the Fatima apparition.
• The grotto beneath the church – a stone tunnel ending in a niche, with a statue of the Immaculate Virgin and a spring regarded as miraculous.
• The side altars with images of Our Lady of Good Counsel and the crucified Christ, and the vault painted with scenes from the life of Mary.

Tripto tip

The sanctuary belongs to the parish of the Nativity of St John the Baptist in Ślemień. The main celebrations are two church festivals on the first and second Sundays of September, with Masses at 07:00, 09:00 and the main Mass at 11:30 – the hill is crowded then. For a quiet visit choose another day and allow about half an hour for the church and grotto. You reach the church by walking up from the village, so wear comfortable shoes. If you want to take water from the spring in the grotto, bring your own bottle.