Śląskie sanktuaria – miejsca zachowania transkulturowej ciągłości

Abstract

Sanctuaries are very special places for all religions, which are rooted in various, cultural settings. The essence of pilgrimage to them flows from a free choice of taking a trek, overcoming divisions as national borders and distinct ethnic, national or religious groups. Holy hills, wonderful sources and other natural relics of supernatural events, and above all, a silhouette of pilgrimage shrines are still recognizable signs of transcendent intuition, which are inscribed in human’s nature. In Silesia – the borderland – where precious threads of their traditions were located by Poles, Germans and Czechs for centuries. Sanctuaries create an extremely colorful mosaic of places – “the guest houses” such as: Wambierzyce in Lower Silesia, Mount St. Anne in the Opole and Piekary in Upper Silesia. They are engraved in the landscape thanks to recognizable qualities of architectural forms of churches, monasteries, calvary chapels and Pilgrim houses. As the history of Silesian sanctuaries proves, they have become an milieu of a local communities crystallization. In their light, generations of many nations grow up to overcome mutual differences, animosities or even a hostility fueled at times of wars, uprisings and subsequent occupations. Undoubtedly, an assimilation of newcomers from abroad, who settled in Silesia permanently, has occured in these places. These “houses” are still alive, as both religious centers and treasures of a widely implied notion of the culture.