Shrine of Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal, Olcza (Zakopane)

Drive into Zakopane from the Olcza side and you will see a church whose roof is made up of five segments of unequal height. From the side they look like hands joined in prayer, and at the same time like steep highland roofs and Tatra peaks. This is the Shrine of Our Lady Revealing the Miraculous Medal, consecrated on 30 July 1988, with stained glass that, according to the parish, is among the largest in the world relative to the size of the church.

History: from a 1914 parish to a shrine

Priests of the Congregation of the Mission (Vincentians) came to Olcza at the parish's invitation in 1913, and in 1914 a parish independent of Zakopane was created here. From the start they spread devotion to Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal. A new church was planned before the First World War, but construction only got going in the 1970s and 1980s thanks to the parish priest Fr Jan Kowalik. The church was consecrated by Cardinal Franciszek Macharski, and on 7 December 2008 Cardinal Stanisław Dziwisz made it a diocesan shrine.

The dedication goes back to the apparitions of 27 November 1830 in Paris, when the Virgin Mary appeared to Sister Catherine Labouré and asked her to have a medal struck to the design she was shown, promising graces to all who wore it with faith. Medals are available just inside the entrance on the right.

Architecture

The church was designed by Professor Tadeusz Gawłowski of the Silesian University of Technology and Teresa Lisowska-Gawłowska. It is 45 m long and 42 m wide, and the tallest segment, including the dome and cross, reaches 46 m. The building is split into a lower church for parish life and an upper church for the liturgy, holding about 1,500 people.

What to look for

• The oak doors by Stanisław Walkosz Jambor, and by the entrance the foundation stone and founding act, plus a century-old highland doorway framing a pietà by Zygmunt Piekacz and Wojciech Obrochta.
• The larch-wood chancel wall with a stylised highland door and reliefs of the mysteries of the Rosary by Zygmunt Piekacz.
• The tabernacle with a bronze Last Supper relief by Karol Badyna, set in a pillar clad in Sławniowice stone, and above it a statue of the Immaculate by Jan Siek.
• The stained glass – in the chancel, one of the last works of Tadeusz Brzozowski; the rest designed by Maciej Kauczyński, showing the apparitions, St Maximilian Kolbe, John Paul II, the history of the Church in Poland and the life of St Vincent de Paul.

Tripto tip

Allow 20–30 minutes for the interior and its windows; a sunny day is best, when the glass is lit up. Address: os. Piszczory 13, Zakopane-Olcza – the shrine lies away from the busiest part of town, in a district of houses and guesthouses, well away from the bustle of Krupówki. The parish office is open on Tuesdays and Thursdays 10:00–11:00 and on Wednesdays 16:00–17:00, and guidebooks to the shrine are sold at the back of the church.