The Pope's Stone on Kraków Błonie

Monuments

al. 3 Maja, 30-962 Kraków Tourist region: Kraków i okolice

You can see a large grey boulder at 3 Maja Avenue, on the edge of Kraków Błonia, the largest meadow in Europe.

It is a block of granite, weighing 26 tonnes, brought from the Morskie Oko area in the Tatra Mountains. It was placed here in 1997, on the 19th anniversary of the inauguration of John Paul II's pontificate, as a symbol of the meetings between the Polish Pope and the faithful. Błonia was the site of major papal masses during the Holy Father's pilgrimages to his homeland in 1979, 1983, 1997, and 2002. In the latter year, 2.5 million worshippers attended Mass!

Shortly after the Polish Pope's death, the White March of the bereaved faithful arrived at the papal stone, where a Mass of thanksgiving for John Paul II's life was celebrated. Karol Wojtyła's successor on the Throne of Peter, Pope Benedict XVI, met with the faithful at Błonie a year later. The obelisk bears the inscription: ‘You are the rock’.