Shrine of Our Lady of Krasnobród (Church of the Visitation)

At the heart of the baroque shrine in Krasnobród is an image smaller than a postcard – just 9 × 14 cm. According to tradition it was found in 1649 in the mud of a site ravaged by Cossacks, and during the Second World War parishioners smuggled it out of the church occupied by the Germans. The Church of the Visitation, founded by Queen Marie Casimire Sobieska, is now one of the most important centres of Marian devotion in the Roztocze region.

History: from apparition to coronation

The devotion goes back to an apparition in 1640: according to tradition, the Virgin Mary appeared in the forest to a local peasant, Jakub Ruszczyk. In autumn 1648 Khmelnytsky's Cossacks destroyed the statue standing at the apparition site and looted the votive offerings. In spring 1649 a paper image was found in the melting snow and mud, still fresh despite the winter – the faithful took this as a sign. The apparitions and the cult were confirmed by a commission sent by the Bishop of Chełm in 1654, and in 1674 by a theological commission of the Zamość Academy.

The Dominicans settled in Krasnobród in the second half of the 17th century. The present church was built in 1690–1699 to a design by Jan Michał Link as Marie Casimire Sobieska's votive offering of thanks for her recovery from illness; it was consecrated on 12 August 1699, and the tsarist authorities expelled the Dominicans in 1864. On 22 July 1943 three parishioners – postmaster Franciszek Zawół, sacristan Bronisław Ruta and Jan Woś – took the image out of the church and hid it in the manor at Podzamek. On 4 July 1965 Bishop Piotr Kałwa crowned the image together with its enlarged copy.

What to see

• The high altar by Jan Maucher (1774–1776) – the original image sits at its centre against a copy of the picture; between the columns stand figures of Dominican saints: Hyacinth, Dominic, Vincent Ferrer and Thomas Aquinas.
• Five gilded altars, including side altars of Our Lady of Częstochowa, St Valentine, the Crucified Christ and St Anne.
• The porch and gateway added in 1778 to Maucher's design.
• The former monastery from the 18th century, with a bell tower and a wooden granary from 1795.
• The chestnut-and-birch avenue to the wooden Chapel on the Water from the first half of the 19th century, linked with the apparition site – according to the parish, many springs rise beneath it, and people come to collect the water; along the avenue are also the chapels of St Onuphrius (1846), Sts Nicholas and Anne, and St Anthony.
• The Stations of the Cross in the forest behind the monastery.

Tripto tips

This is an active shrine – visit outside Mass times and keep quiet. On Sundays Masses are held at 7:00, 9:00, 10:30 and 12:00, among others, so weekdays are calmest. The main feast days are 1–2 July (Our Lady of the Berries), 15 August (Our Lady of the Herbs), 8 September and the first Sunday of October – Krasnobród gets very crowded then. Allow 20–30 minutes for the church, or about an hour with a walk to the Chapel on the Water.