Parthemores in Poland

For the final day of our trip, we stopped to visit two popular Polish destinations.  The first was Częstochowa to see the Black Madonna,a religious icon in the Jasna Góra monastery.  It is safe to say that this is the spiritual center of Poland, with millions of pilgrims coming here every year.  In August, over 100,000 people show up on the Feast of the Assumption to take part in a huge outdoor mass.  Some of the attendees from Poland walk there.  This is pretty serious stuff. 

The painting is only shown at certain times during the day.  You are allowed to take pictures, but I was too scared to.  I took one photo that I think will explain why:

(The Black Madonna is the brightly lit spot behind the gated section.)

With all these people deep in prayer, I certainly did not want to be That Guy who marches up to the front and snaps a photo.  I felt bad enough just looking all around the inside of the church, since it was beautiful.  Honestly, there were all these bowed heads, and there’s me, looking up, sideways, and probably backwards.  There was a whole wall covered with canes and crutches, which I’m assuming were left by people who were healed. 

So instead of taking a photo, I just bought this postcard.  The altar is pretty awesome.

The rest of the complex is pretty amazing as well.  There were a few beautiful mosaics on the walls.

Even the entrance is impressive.

The tower is the tallest church tower in Poland.

Overall, it was a pretty amazing place.  I can only imagine what it would be like with 100,000 people there.

Our next stop was in the manufacturing city of Łódź, which is right smack dab in the middle of Poland.

I will admit the name looks crazy for anyone who doesn’t speak Polish.  Thankfully, the Łódź chamber of commerce has come up with a helpful video to teach English speakers how to pronounce it:

Or if this helps you remember:

Classical literature fans may prefer:

“Łódź you eat them in a house?  Łódź you eat them with a mouse?” from Green Eggs and Ham. 

OK, enough of that.

The highlight of Łódź is definitely the Manufaktura shopping center/recreation compound.  This was the site of a huge textile mill that was finally closed down in the 90’s.  In 2003, it was purchased by investors and is now a one-stop-shop for ways to spend your free time and money.  The mall is the largest in Europe, plus there is a movie theater, bowling, rock climbing, laser tag, and who knows what else. 

All of these are housed in the original brick factory buildings.  They set up a small museum to show the history of the textile plant, which was kind of interesting.  They had some of the old looms set up and before we left the museum guide fired up two of them for a demo.

It was hard to talk over the noise that two of those things made.  The original factory had hundreds of these looms stuffed into a series of huge rooms.  The racket must have been incredible.

We also headed down to the main square, which featured a cool looking church and a Kościusko monument.

That’s him shaking hands with George Washington.  After his service in the American Revolution, he returned to Poland and, in 1794, led the ultimately unsuccessful Polish uprising against the partitioning powers.  He is remembered as a hero in both the US and in Poland.

As the video mentions, there is a film school here.  The city has also constructed a Walk of Fame.  Did you notice whose star they showed?  Roman Polański. 

The video pretty much sums up all the highlights.  I’m kind of glad we stopped on the way home so we didn’t waste a day trip on it. 

Our diametrically opposing visits wrapped up a great two weeks of traveling.  Lots of fun, but really tiring.