Sanctuary of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary Zielenice

Monuments

Wysoka, jasna, murowana brama z łukiem i krzyżem u góry, z otwartymi kutymi kratami, widziana od dołu. Za bramą jasna ściana murowanego kościoła z kopułą pokrytą blachą i dwiema wieżyczkami z sygnaturkami. Nad nim pochmurne niebo.

Zielenice 30, 32-107 Zielenice Tourist region: Kraków i okolice

tel. +48 123856038

The origin of the sanctuary was in 1613 when a copy of the Roman image of Our Lady of the Snows - Solus Populi Romani - was brought from Kraków. Pope John Paul II crowned it at Jasna Góra in 1983.

The first mention of the wooden church of St Nicholas is from 1346. In 1613, a 16th-century image of the Virgin Mary, brought from the Jesuit Church of Saints Matthew and Matthias in Kraków, was placed there. After the image of the Madonna was recognised as miraculous in 1654, Marian devotion expanded. It also became necessary to build a new, larger church. A wooden temple was built in 1660, and between 1681 and 1691, a brick temple was erected from the foundation of the miraculously healed Franciszek Szembek. The main altar contains an image of Our Lady of Zieleniec.

The church stands at the top of the Opatrzności Hill. It is an orientated temple surrounded by a large park with 800 spruce and 2,800 pine trees. The life-size bronze figures, set up at the stations of the Stations of the Cross leading through the park, are the work of Czesław Dźwigaj, a professor at Kraków Academy of Fine Arts. The church is made of brick and plaster. It has a single three-bay nave with a square presbytery, to which the vestry, outbuilding, porch, and belfry are adjoining. A tower rises in the middle of the nave. Its interior is decorated with Baroque and Rococo altars. The main altar from the 17th century, with the image of Our Lady of Zieleniec, is made of polychromed black wood and gilded. It houses several valuable paintings by the painter Jan Molga.