When in Czestochowa you cannot miss: the monuments

 

Jasna Góra - the landscape

The Jasna Góra hill - The first Pauline Fathers settled on the hill in 1382 when Prince Ladislaus of Opole (Władysław Opolczyk) donated the Holy Virgin Mary Parish Church to the Order of Pauline Fathers. Soon the monastry was built on this site in 1393 following the foundation by King Ladislaus Jagiello and his wife Queen Jadwiga, as well as many other donations afterwards. Fortifications built in 1620-1644 by King Ladislaus IV Vasa made the monastery an important part of the country’s defences. In 1655 the fortress successfully fought off the Swedish army under King Charles X Gustavus. At that time the defence at Prior Augustyn Kordecki’s command had a great moral and political significance. Monarchs and ever growing multitudes of the faithful started going on pilgrimage to Częstochowa.

Then King John Casimir in his Lvov Vows declared the Mother of God to be the Queen of Poland. It happened that the fortifications of Jasna Góra withstood the sieges of the Swedish army during the Northern Wars in 1702, 1704 and 1705. After some time in the year 1717 the first coronation of the Black Madonna picture took place in Poland.

 

Jasna Góra

The Monastery proved its military power when the Confederates of the city of Bar under orders of Kazimierz Pułaski managed successfully to resist Russian troops for the period of three years. During the Napoleon era the Jasna Góra Monastery played the role of fortress for the last time defending the freedom of Poland against the attacks of the Austrian army. After Napoleon's defeat the fortress was seized by the Russian army and very quickly the defensive walls were pulled down. In 1910 the picture of the Black Madonna was crowned again and ten years later, this time in independent Poland, the Episcopate declared again The Holy Virgin Mary the Queen of Poland.

In 1956 on the 300th anniversary of the King John Casimir’s Vows, beloved by all Poles, Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński renewed the Jasna Góra Vows, In 1979 the Holy Father John Paul II, the first Polish Pope in the Church, came to the Jasna Góra Monastry on one of his first visits after the conclave. The present architectural complex, built over a period of more than five centuries constitutes a compact set of monastery buildings. Within the walls of the Jasna Góra fortress there are historical buildings and relics of the past of utmost importance for the Polish nation. They are the testimony of the epochs, moreover they are the testimony of the people and the cultural heritage of Poland.

 

the Black Madonna picture

The Holy Virgin Mary Chapel - the Gothic Chapel with the Black Madonna picture. That famous and sacred picture placed in the Baroque ebony altar is higlhy regarded for many miracles that make it the object of pilgrims’ devotion from all parts of the Globe. A great many of pleas and thanksgiving brought to the Madonna are commemorated by countless votive offerings placed by the faithful on the Chapel walls. In 1662 -1664 the Chapel was extended by a three-nave Baroque building, which is now an outstanding example of Polish architecture of the Counter-Reformation period. The third part of the Chapel was added in 1929. Adjacent to the Chapel we can find the Basilica of the Invention of the Cross and the Birth of the Blessed Virgin Mary, two superb masterpieces of the Baroque architecture. The vaults are covered with frescoes dating from the late 17th century. The main altar is an exquisite example of the late Baroque art. Three 17th century chapels adjoin the Basilica. They are as follows:

St. Paul the First Hermit's Chapel, the Holy Relics Chapel and the Heart of Jesus Chapel. On the choir gallery, over the main entrance to the Basilica there is a magnificent organ, one of the biggest in Poland with 105 voices, 4 keyboards and two counters.

The Knights' Hall - a very representative hall of the Monastery in Renaissance style, adorned with a series of 17th century paintings documenting significant events in the history of the Monastery.

 

Jasna Góra - the Tower

The Monastery Walls - the area along the fortress walls, at the four ends of which there are four bastions of the former quadrangular fortification of Jasna Góra. We can enumerate the following bastions: St. Barbara's, St. Roch's, St. James's Bastions and the Holy Trinity bastion.

The Tower - one of the highest in the country, above 106 metres tall with 519 steps leading to its top. The viewing platform is a great place to admire the whole panorama of Częstochowa. On the second storey of the tower there is a chiming clock, playing Marian hymns with its 36 bells.The national heritage and the Pauline Fathers' collections can be seen in the Treasury, the Arsenal, the Museum of the 600th Anniversary and the Library.

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St. Andrew and St. Barbara's Church

St. Andrew and St. Barbara's Church - built in the mid-17th century for the novitiate of the Jasna Góra Monastery. The location of the Church was probably determined by the presence of the spring in which, according to the legend, the profaned picture of the Black Madonna, stolen from the Jasna Góra Monastery, was washed in 1430. At the end of the 19th century the church became a parish church. The church itself was built in Baroque style with some traces of Gothic, originally with one nave, later extended by two side aisles into chapels. The tower is crowned with a Baroque dome. Behind the church there is St. Barbara's Chapel with the spring.

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Parks

Parks near Jasna Góra:
Stanisław Staszic Park - established on the eastern slope of the Jasna Góra hill in 1826. It was the site of the National Industrial and Agricultural Exhibition in 1909. Several buildings have remained in the Park since that time: the Secession Exhibition Pavilion, now housing the collections of the Częstochowa Museum, the unique and the only model of a peasant farm in Poland, a stylish wooden summer house and the Astronomical Observatory. Two ponds connected with a narrow canal add variety to the Park’s landscape. Among the plants in the Park there are some rare tree and shrub species such as the Austrian pine, the Chinese juniper, the Pennsylvania ash and the Douglas fir.
The 3rd May Park - established in 1938, is situated on the eastern slope of the Jasna Góra hill. In the Park there are tennis courts with clubhouse in an old-style. Chess enthusiasts have their meeting point near the Stanisław Moniuszko monument, where they can enjoy this royal game. There are 1581 specimens of trees and shrubs in the park, which belong to 83 species and varieties. Foreign species come mainly from South America and Asia.

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Aleje Najświętszej Maryi Panny

The Holy Virgin Mary Avenue (Aleje Najświętszej Maryi Panny) - one of the most representative streets of Częstochowa leading from St. Sigismund’s Church to the Parks near the Jasna Góra hill thus joining the Old and the New city of Częstochowa. It was here that from the mid-19th century the most valuable public buildings and residences of local factory owners were built, with façades richly decorated with bay windows, balconies and other architectural details. In the Avenue one can also see houses of the city middle class. Those historical buildings on both sides of the Avenue remind us what the city life looked like in the not so remote past.

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The Church of the Holy Virgin Mary - built together with the convent of Mariavite Sisters in 1859 - 1862. The Neo-Gothic, one-nave interior without separate presbytery is covered with a panelled ceiling decorated with wooden rosettes. The walls are covered with Secession paintings of flowery motifs. The former convent church has become now the academic church. Pictures of famous painters are to be found here like: the picture of Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary by Rafał Hadziewicz; also paintings by January Suchodolski and Piotr Le Brin. On the wooden choir gallery there is an organ dating from 1935. Under the choir gallery there are two sandstone stoups with Baroque features.

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Ratusz - the Town Hall

The Town Hall - a symbol of the city, reminds us of the foundation of the up-to-date Częstochowa. It was erected for the seat of the local government of the new town in 1828, two years after the official merger of the Old and the New City. Unlike municipal buildings in most other towns, the Częstochowa Town Hall is situated on the transverse axis of the town's central square. Extended in 1908, the Town Hall became a two-storey building with a round tower in the centre and two detached buildings nearby. Originally the Town Hall was surrounded by a big garden on its three sides except for the front. On the ground floor there were offices, whereas the upper floor was designed as the apartment for the Mayor of the town. The right-side building housed a prison, whereas in the left-side building was assignd to guards and officers. Now the old Town Hall is the main seat of the Częstochowa Museum.

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St. Sigismund's Church

St. Sigismund's Church - the oldest church in Częstochowa, founded in the 14th century, three-nave with elongated presbytery and one Gothic tower. Later extensions include the building of St. Gregory's Chapel in the years 1625-1643, the building of the vestry on the northern side later pulled down in the 19th century. The Old Town cemetery which once surrounded the Church was closed down and demolished. The Church which has survived in its present Baroque form since 1783 has a façade with two towers. Next to the church there are buildings of the two-storey presbytery and a former brick monastery dating from the early 17th century, connected with the church on the upper floor level. On the site of today's Mirowska Street running in the immediate vicinity of the Church there was once a belfry with adjoining town walls and a tower.

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The Holy Family Cathedral

The Holy Family Cathedral of Częstochowa Archdiocese - built in stages in 1901-1927 is one of the biggest churches in Poland. Made of brick with stone and sandstone architectural details, in Neo-gothic style, three-naved, with elongated presbytery and a façade topped with two towers. The interior of the Cathedral has Scandinavian granite finishing, and stained-glass windows representing the most important events in the history of the nation and the Church. In the 1930's balustrades with tracery and brass-reliefs were erected in front of the three altars. In front of the Holy Virgin Mary Chapel there are the tombs of the city former bishops.

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St. Roch and St. Sebastian's Church and Cemetery - the oldest of the existing cemeteries of Częstochowa, situated between St. Roch Street and St. Sebastian Street, near the church of the same name. The cemetery was established in the 1640's. In the mid-19th century the Protestant section was allotted and 30 years later - a Russian Orthodox one. The oldest tombstone preserved in the cemetery dates from 1849. Insurgents of the 3rd Silesian Uprising, poet Halina Poświatowska, Ignacy Kozielewski as well as many others are buried here.The history of St. Roch and St. Sebastian's Church dates back to the mid-17th century, when a brick chapel was erected on this site. The chapel was demolished during the Swedish war of 1655-60, but in 1680 a brick and stone church was built on the site of the destroyed chapel and then consecrated. The originally Baroque church had one nave with an arched ceiling, but after reconstruction a tripartite façade with two towers topped with Baroque domes was added.

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Dom Frankego - Franke’s house - This tenement building has an eclectic architectural style that is of Berlin and Vienna. Once, it was the Victoria Hotel; now, it has municipal flats upstairs and shops downstairs.

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Plac Daszyńskiego - Ignacy Daszyński Square - The square in front of St. Sigismund’s church is where once there was an old parish graveyard.

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Stary Rynek - The Old Town Market Square - The Old Town Square was in the past the centre of commerce in the old city of Częstochowa. In the Middle Ages, many trade routes converged in the Square. In the centre of the Square, there was once a town hall dating from the 15th century, until it was destroyed by fire in 1812. The foundations resembling the Old Town Hall, burnt down in fire, are nowdays marked clearly in the pavement of the Square.
One can see a few historic 18th-century tenements on the northern and eastern side of the Square. From the Old Town Square, you can easily find the trail to the Eagles Nests’ Route. Also, within reach of the square are other routes winding its way through the Jura Upland up to the city of Cracow.

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St. Jacob's Church - At first an Orthodox church, it is one of the most beautiful shrines in Częstochowa. It is located at Biegański Square just opposite the Town Hall. On teh church's waals, Admirable Stations of the Cross are painted in the Byzantine style.

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The Golden Mount (Złota Góra) - a limestone hill on the Eagles' Nests' Route facing Jasna Góra. On its white slopes the Mount reflects the rays of the sun over the City. From this place the panorama of Częstochowa can easily be seen. Limestone used to be a very popular building material in the past and many of the City buildings were constructed of stone excavated here. Today excavation pits went out of use but are still an attraction of paramount importance