Pilgrimage Tours
Pilgrimage Tour from Prague through Krakow to Warsaw
We invite you to a pilgrimage to two Central European countries where you will visit shrines and places of Catholic worship, but the programme also includes visits to historical and tourist sites. The pilgrimage starts in the Czech Republic, where you will first visit the capital - Prague, and then the most famous Marian sanctuary in the Czech Republic dating from the 17th century in Pribram. The pilgrimage then continues to Poland with a visit to the Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum - the former concentration camp where St Maximilian Kolbe ended his days. After this visit, you will spend a few days in and around Krakow, including the birthplace of John Paul II - Wadowice. A must for any pilgrimage to Poland is a visit to the Jasna Gora Shrine in Czestochowa. It is the most important Marian shrine in Poland. The pilgrimage ends in the Polish capital Warsaw.
Trip Highlights:
- Visit to the best-known Marian sanctuary in the Czech Republic
- Visit to Karlstejn Castle and its Holy Cross Chapel, the home of the Bohemian crown jewels and reliquaries of saints
- Visit to the Sanctuary of Divine Mercy in the Krakow - Łagiewniki
- Visit to the John Paul II biographic museum in his family home in Wadowice
- Visit to the Pauline Monastery at Jasna Gora in Czestochowa - the Polish Lourdes
- Holy Mass in the Church of St. Stanislaw Kostka, site of the grave of Blessed Jerzy Popieluszko
Itinerary:
Day 1 Prague
morning Arrival in Prague. Meet our tour leader. Transfer to your hotel and check-in. Tour of the city’s foremost sacral monuments: the monastery at Strahov, the Loreto with the Santa Cassa, Hradčany Royal Castle (from the outside), including St. Vitus’ Cathedral and the Basilica of St. George, and the Golden Lane. A stroll through the historic Mala Strana (Lesser Town) district and a tour of St Nicholas’ Church.
afternoon Holy Mass in the Church of Our Lady of Victory, with the miraculous figure of the Infant Jesus of Prague. Then we walk across the medieval Charles Bridge with the sculpture of the Prague saint and martyr St John of Nepomuk, onto the Old Town Square with its Town Hall, famous astronomic clock, and the Church of Our Lady before Tyn.
evening Dinner and night in your hotel in Prague.
Day 2 Prague – Pribram – Karlstejn - Prague
morning Excursion to Svatá Hora (Holy Mountain) in the town of Pribram ( 60 km outside Prague), the best-known Marian sanctuary in the Czech Republic. Tour of the monastery and Holy Mass.
afternoon On the return journey a visit to Karlstejn Castle and its Holy Cross Chapel, the home of the Bohemian crown jewels and reliquaries of saints. On returning to Prague, free time or a visit to Josefov, the former Jewish quarter of Prague.
evening Dinner and night in your hotel in Prague.
Day 3 Prague – Auschwitz - Krakow
morning & afternoon Departure for Krakow. En route we visit the former concentration camp Auschwitz I, where we will see the starvation cell in which St. Maksymilian Kolbe died a martyr’s death, and the death camp Auschwitz II – Birkenau, where the Nazis murdered over a million people in the gas chambers, most of them Jews, and one of them the Christian-Jewish patron saint of Europe, Edith Stein (St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross). Holy Mass in the Franciscan center of Sts. Maksymilian Kolbe.
evening Arrival in Krakow. Check-in and dinner at the hotel.
Day 4 Krakow
morning Guided visit of Krakow including the Old Town with its Market Square (the largest medieval square in Europe) where you can listen to the famous signal that is played every hour from the tower of St. Mary’ Church (visit to its altar - one of the largest Gothic altar in Europe). In this church Karol Wojtyla was a confessor from 1952 until 1957). Continue on to the Cloth Hall (Sukiennice), Jagiellonian University - where Karol Wojtyla was studying, Collegium Maius, the Wawel Castle with its cathedral (presenting rich Polish history) - in a crypt of Saint Leonard young Karol Wojtyla celebrated his first Mass where he took as his motto “Totus Tuus” . On the program also: the Palace of the Krakow’ Archbishops where John Paul II lived as the bishop and archbishop of Krakow, the Franciscan Church - opposite the Archbishop's palace where the Pope often came to pray.
afternoon We will go to the town of Wieliczka on the outskirts of Krakow for a tour of its salt mine, a unique, UNESCO-listed relic of European medieval technology. A walk several kilometers in length through the chambers and chapels hollowed out from the rock salt, foremost among them in terms of its ornate beauty and size St. Kinga’s Chapel.
evening Dinner and a concert of traditional Polish music in a restaurant in the old town of Krakow.
Day 5 Krakow - Wadowice – Sanctuary of Divine Mercy – Krakow
morning Excursion to Wadowice, the town where Pope John Paul II was born. Time to pray in the church in which the saint was baptized, and a visit to the John Paul II biographic museum in his family home.
afternoon Our next destination is the Sanctuary of Divine Mercy in the Krakow - Łagiewniki suburb of Krakow. The basilica in Krakow - Łagiewniki is a global center of the cult of Divine Mercy. St Faustina Kowalska, the mystic to whom Jesus entrusted the mission of preaching the Divine Mercy, served and is buried in the adjacent convent of the Sisters of Mercy. Holy Mass in the Basilica of Divine Mercy.
evening Dinner at the hotel.
Day 6 Krakow – Czestochowa - Warsaw
morning & afternoon Departure for Czestochowa. The Pauline Monastery at Jasna Gora in Czestochowa, with the miraculous image of Our Lady of Czestochowa (the Black Madonna), is one of the foremost Marian sanctuaries in the world, and the Poles’ national sanctuary. Tour of the monastery, prayer before the Icon of Blac Madonna and Holy Mass in the basilica - the main monastery church. Travel to Warsaw.
evening Arrival in Warsaw. Dinner and night at a hotel in Warsaw.
Day 7 Warsaw
morning Holy Mass in the Church of St. Stanislaw Kostka, site of the grave of Blessed Jerzy Popieluszko, a priest involved in the resistance movement against the Communist dictatorship who was murdered by the political police in 1984. His grave is now the foremost destination of pilgrimage in Warsaw. We will also tour the Old Town, rebuilt from the ruins in which it was left at the end of World War II. Sights on our route will include the reconstructed Royal Castle, the Sigismund Column, St. John’s Metropolitan Cathedral, the Old Town Square, and the Barbican, and we will take a walk along the imposing Krakowskie Przedmieście Street.
afternoon Time to your own disposal in Warsaw.
evening Dinner in a city restaurant and overnight at the hotel in Warsaw.
Day 8 Departure
Check-out from your hotel, transfer to the airport and return flight or coach home (depending on the mode of transport chosen).
Services included:
- 2 night's accommodation in Prague in a hotel chosen by you on bed and breakfast basis
- 3 night's accommodation in Krakow in a hotel chosen by you on bed and breakfast basis
- 2 night's accommodation in Warsaw in a hotel chosen by you on bed and breakfast basis
- All transfers as per above mentioned itinerary
- Private English speaking guide as per the itinerary
- Entrance fees for all sightseeing
- Meals as per the itinerary
Services not included:
- The journey to the Czech Republic and from Poland
- Tour guide
- Public transport
- Insurance
- Personal expenditure, tips, etc.
- All other services not mentioned in the itinerary
Price on request.