Green Velo

The Shrine of Christ’s Passion and Our Lady of Calvary with the monastery of the Franciscan Fathers towers over a high hill stretching over the Wiar River Valley. Andrzej Fredro was the founder of the temple and the Calvary shrine in 1665.

The reason for erecting a shrine was for dissemination of the cult of the Lord’s Passion; the purpose for its location on the high bank of the Wiar was to protect against looting. In the 18th century, Szczepan Dwernicki founded a church and chapels, as well as popularised pilgrimages to Calvary. In the church, there is the miraculous image of Our Lady of Calvary, which was placed here in the 17th century. The Baroque three-nave church of the Discovery of the Holy Cross is in the form of a basilica built in a projection of a cross. The surrounding hills and valleys have been given names derived from biblical sites, such as Golgotha, the Mount of Olives and the Kidron Valley. In the hills, the Calvary paths run, modelled upon those of Jerusalem: the Stations of the Cross of the Lord Jesus (28 stations, including the 14 Stations of the Cross) and the Route of the funeral and Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary (14 stations). On the hills, there are also other chapels of pilgrimage.