Jasna Góra Monastery

Image: Wikimedia Commons

On the Bright Hill above Częstochowa, the Pauline monastery of Jasna Góra, founded in 1382 by Prince Władysław of Opole, is the spiritual heart of Poland. Its greatest treasure is the miraculous icon of the Black Madonna of Częstochowa, brought there in 1384 and attributed by tradition to Saint Luke the Evangelist. The heroic resistance of the monastery to the Swedish siege of 1655 made it a symbol of the nation's faith and freedom, and millions of pilgrims still walk to Jasna Góra every year, especially for the feast of Our Lady of Częstochowa on 26 August.