Town Zakopane and  the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Fatima in Krzeptówki

The town of Zakopane 

“Poland’s winter capital”, lies some 100 km south of Krakow. Nestled at the foot of the Tatra Mountains, it is a popular centre of tourism and winter sports. Over the past quarter-century, the folk character of the town centre has become effaced by incohesive construction, but further out of the centre many examples of the unique “Zakopane style” of architecture are still to be seen in the form of wooden houses and villas referencing and reinterpreting the local vernacular architecture.

Village Chocholow

It is also worth taking a trip out to the delightful village of Chochołów, less than 20 km away, to see an untainted complex of original wooden houses that are still inhabited today.
Zakopane is the point of departure for the hiking trails into the Tatra National Park, the only alpine mountain range between the Alps and the Caucasus.

Karol Wojtyła was a frequent visitor here: as a child, with his father and his brother, and later as a priest, often with the students to whom he was chaplain. He also returned many times even after his election as pope.

The Sanctuary of Our Lady of Fatima in Krzeptówki

Krzeptówki is the part of Zakopane that is home to the Marian sanctuary built as a votive offering for the sparing of John Paul II’s life after the assassination attempt on 13 May 1981. This beautiful modern church, whose architecture nevertheless references the traditional folk architecture of the region, was consecrated by John Paul II himself in 1997, during his sixth pilgrimage to his homeland.