Kalwaria Zebrzydowska Off The Beaten Path

There is an exposition of photographs taken during pope John Paul II visits to Kalwaria Zebrzydowska in 1979 and 2002. It's located in a corridor at the backside of the basilica.

Roman catholic pope John Paul II was born 14 km (8.7 mi) east of Kalwaria Zebrzydowska in a town called Wadowice. He came here many times with pilgrimages as a young boy with his father and later as a priest from Krakow. So, there are a lot of signs of his presence there.

The three side chapels of the basilica: Our Lady of Kalwaria, St. Anthony’s and The Chapel of Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary are covered by smaller or larger domes. There is interesting observation point in a small tower on the top of each dome (called lantern), hmm... unaccesible for visitors.

Look up at the top of the basilica chapels.
Our Lady of the Angels' Basilica is composed of a high and wide nave with four bays separated by pilasters, of a narrower and lower rectangular presbytery, of a monastic quire (behind the great altar) and of adjoining south side chapels, Our Lady of Kalwaria, St. Anthony’s and The Chapel of Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

There is this stone statue as on my picture standing among buildings of House of Pilgrim (Dom Pielgrzyma). The inscription says in Polish language: Mary, queen of Poland, pray for us! There were a lot of flowers put beneath the statue.
St. Mary is a catholic patron of Poland and is called queen of Poland.

There is a small altar in the sacristy (vestry) of Our Lady of the Angels' Basilica. Look at the old wooden sculpture of Jesus Christ on the cross in the middle of the altar. There are portraits of pope John Paul II and his friend Franciszek Macharski, arcibishop of Krakow on both sides of the altar.

Small sacristy (vestry) of Our Lady of the Angels' Basilica is adjoined by The Chapel of Immaculate Conception of the BVM (formerly called Bracka) at the southern wall of the nave founded in 1749.

Sacristy (vestry) is a room in a church, especially one in which priests and the group of people who sing in church put on the special clothes they wear for church ceremonies, and in which items used in church ceremonies are sometimes kept.

We were lucky to enter sacristy (vestry). The entrance door was opened, we came inside and asked the priest whether we could take some pictures. He smiled and allowed us to see and take pictures inside.
Surely there were a lot of different special clothes priests wear for church ceremonies.

Walls of Our Lady of the Angels' Basilica are highly decorated, it's Baroque! Look at the pulpit hanging on the wall on my picture.
A pulpit is a raised place in a church, with steps leading up to it (where are they?), from which the priest speaks to the worshippers.

There are many altars inside Our Lady of the Angels? Basilica. Except the main altar located at presbyterium at the end of the main, wide nave there are 9 as I remember smaller altars dedicated to various saints located on the northern and southern walls of the basilica and on the rood arch wall.
Don't miss them, some of them look amazing.

At the front the Paradise Square in front of facade of the basilica is closed with an iron balustrade. There are ten stone posts, which support stone figures of saints created by Tomasz Galuszczynski in 1823 there.

This one on my picture had a hat. We were joking with Kathy (Kodi01) that he must be from Texas. Is it Texican hat? I am not sure :-).