Sanctuary of St Brother Albert Zakopane Kalatówki

Monuments

Izba Pamięci Brata Alberta z przedmiotami których używał i z relikwiami

ul. Droga Brata Alberta 1, 34-500 Zakopane Tourist region: Tatry i Podhale

tel. +48 182014230

In the mountain forests near Kuźnice, there are two small monasteries – the Albertine Sisters and the Albertine Brothers. Both were created thanks to St. Brother Albert – Adam Chmielowski. The place is now frequently visited by pilgrims, and Saint John Paul II used to visit it, both as the Bishop of Krakow and later as the Holy Father.

First, at the end of the 19th century, an Albertine monastery was built (to the left of Brother Albert's Path and the trail from Kuźnice to Kalatówki glade) with a wooden Brother Albert's hermitage, designed by Stanisław Witkiewicz, on land donated by the then owner of Zakopane, Count Władysław Zamoyski, with contributions from people who donated part of their wages for work on building the path to Czarny Staw and the road to Morskie Oko. The original monastic chapel of the Holy Cross and the hermitage were built in the Zakopane style of wooden logs on a high stone foundation, without the ornamentation characteristic of Witkiewicz's style – austere and straightforward in form in the spirit of the Albertine rule. In 1902, the monks moved to a nearby new building on Mt Śpiąca Góra (the forested eastern slopes of Krokiew), also in Kalatówki, and the previous older monastery was handed over to the Albertines. A few strictly cloistered sisters (initially 7, and 10 in 2010) have taken up residence here and continue to do so, with Albertine nuns from other convents temporarily coming to rest and recuperate. A path leads from the gate to Brother Albert's Hermitage and the old monastery chapel. A stone spring water well and an obelisk of John Paul II are beside the path. Above the altar in the Chapel of the Holy Cross is an antique crucifix by an unknown artist, which Brother Albert received from the Pauline Fathers in Kraków and before which he spent long hours in prayer. Brother Albert lived in a small cell with a wooden bed in a small house, essentially just a hut, below the Chapel of the Holy Cross. Brother Albert's hermitage is a modest two-room house with an attic, a small porch and a narrow vestibule, Brother Albert's cell and a room for the priests who celebrate Mass in the Albertine chapel. Here, the intelligentsia and artists, including Stefan Żeromski, Stanisław Witkiewicz and Stanisław Przybyszewski, were hosted by Brother Albert. The hermitage was willingly visited by Karol Wojtyła, who highly valued the work of Adam Chmielowski. The drama ‘Brother of Our God’ is based on his life story. Already as Pope John Paul II, he carried out the beatification and later the canonisation of Saint Brother Albert, and in 1997, he visited the saint's hermitage in the Tatra Mountains for the last time (after the beatification Mass of the Albertine nun Sister Bernardine Maria Jabłońska near Wielka Krokiew on 6 June 1997). The hut is now home to a Memorial Chamber dedicated to Saint Brother Albert. The buildings are located on the busy tourist trail to Giewont from Kuźnice, and crowds of tourists visit them.

Brother Albert, the Poor Man of Kraków – Adam Chmielowski was born on 20 August 1845 in Igołomia near Kraków. As an eighteen-year-old Agricultural and Forestry School student in Puławy, he took part in the January Uprising. He was wounded in the defeat at the Battle of Mełchów, as a result of which his leg was amputated. Having got out of captivity, he went to Paris. In 1865, he arrived in Warsaw, where he began to study painting, which he continued in Munich. On returning home, he produced works in which religious themes appeared with ever-greater frequency. He decided to dedicate his life to the exclusive service of God. He entered the Society of Jesus, but after six months, he left the novitiate and went to Podolia, where he joined the friars of the Society of Saint Francis of Assisi and carried out apostolic work among the rural population. In 1884, he returned to Kraków and dedicated his life to serving the abandoned and unfortunate. The centre of its activities was the city's heating facilities for people experiencing homelessness and hospices. He regarded service to the homeless and destitute as a form of Passion worship. He organised homes for people with a disability and the terminally ill, sent nuns to work in military and contagious hospitals, and set up people's kitchens, crèches and educational institutions for homeless children and young people.