My Journey

Sanctuary of Saint John Paul II, Kraków

The sanctuary of Saint John Paul II at Białe Morza in Kraków, built on the site of the Solvay works where Karol Wojtyła laboured, holding his relics in a lower church and standing a short walk from the Divine Mercy sanctuary.

POLAND · KRAKóW 50.0131° N · 19.9364° E
Location
Kraków, Poland 50.0131° N · 19.9364° E
Type
Sanctuary Modern church on a Byzantine-influenced octagonal plan, with a lower church of relics
Dedication
Saint John Paul II
Time Needed
1 to 2 hours
Why Go

Built where he worked, not where he prayed

Pilgrims usually arrive here from Łagiewniki, and the temptation is to treat this as the second half of the Divine Mercy sanctuary. It is not. This is its own sanctuary, with its own custody and its own liturgy, and it stands on ground that matters for a specific reason: Karol Wojtyła worked here. Between 1940 and 1944, under the German occupation, he laboured at the Solvay soda works whose spoil heaps gave this district the name Białe Morza, the White Seas. He walked from here to the convent at Łagiewniki. The sanctuary makes that biography into a place.

From a soda works to a sanctuary

The John Paul II Centre, named from his own words Nie lękajcie się, Do not be afraid, was planned after his death and begun in 2008; Benedict XVI blessed its foundation stone in 2006. After the beatification of 1 May 2011, Cardinal Stanisław Dziwisz erected the sanctuary here on 11 June 2011 and brought in the relics. The upper church was consecrated on 23 June 2013, and John Paul II was canonized on 27 April 2014. The complex has grown to include a museum, conference buildings and an institute, and the sanctuary church sits at the centre of it.

The church is built on two levels. The lower level is the Church of the Relic, an octagonal space with a marble altar at its centre and a ring of small oratories and chapels around it. The upper church, dedicated to John Paul II, is also octagonal, in a Byzantine-influenced idiom, and is covered with mosaic: the sanctuary wall, the aisles, panels of the gifts of the Holy Spirit, and a series showing the Marian shrines the pope visited, among them Fátima, Częstochowa, Lourdes and Kalwaria Zebrzydowska. A free-standing bell tower carries a viewing level.

Read the Place

How to read this sanctuary.

Three things that keep it from collapsing into the shrine up the road.

The ground is the argument

Białe Morza is the waste ground of the Solvay works. Wojtyła carried lime here during the occupation. That is why the sanctuary is on this spot and not another.

A separate institution

Different custody, different website, different Mass times. The two Łagiewniki sanctuaries are neighbours, not one complex.

The relic is downstairs

The lower Church of the Relic holds the ampoule of blood in its altar. The upper church is where the mosaics are.

It is new, and it shows

This sanctuary was consecrated in 2013. Do not expect the worn devotional feel of the convent chapel.

The site is the former Solvay soda works, where Karol Wojtyła worked between 1940 and 1944 under the German occupation

The sanctuary is a separate institution from the Divine Mercy sanctuary, with its own custody, liturgy and website

Spiritual Significance

This is a young sanctuary, and it feels like one. It does not have the accumulated devotional weight of the convent chapel at Łagiewniki, and it does not pretend to. What it has is a documented relic, a clear reason to be on this exact ground, and a liturgy that runs for the pilgrims who come. Treat it as the second sanctuary of the day rather than as an annexe to the first.

The walk Under a kilometre of open ground Seen from the Divine Mercy tower. The two sanctuaries are close enough to walk between and far enough apart that the walk needs planning, and the Stations of the Cross run across the ground in between.
Do Not Miss · 5 stops

Five things, not fifty.

  1. The Church of the Relic

    The octagonal lower church. An ampoule of John Paul II's blood, taken during his final illness and given by Cardinal Dziwisz, is enclosed in the marble altar at its centre.

  2. The mosaics of the upper church

    The sanctuary wall and aisles are covered in mosaic, including panels of the gifts of the Holy Spirit and a series showing the Marian shrines the pope visited: Fátima, Częstochowa, Kalwaria Zebrzydowska, Lourdes, Mariazell and Altötting.

  3. The papal memorials

    His pastoral cross, vestments and mitre are kept here, along with a slab from his first tomb in the Vatican grottoes.

  4. The Stations of the Cross outside

    Set across the open ground between this sanctuary and Łagiewniki. Walking them is the honest way to move between the two.

  5. The bell tower

    A viewing level looks back over Łagiewniki and the Solvay ground. Access is seasonal and ticketed separately.

What to notice
  • That the church has two full levels, and the relic is on the lower one.
  • The mosaic panels of the Marian shrines he visited, which turn the upper church into a map of his pontificate.
  • The open, treeless ground outside, which is the old spoil heap and not landscaping.
  • How different this building feels from the small convent chapel eight hundred metres north.
Visit Plans · 1 plans · add to a journey

How much time, and what to do with it.

  • Duration 1 hr Best for Pilgrims arriving from Łagiewniki

    Down from the Divine Mercy sanctuary

    4 ordered stops

    The walk, the relic, and the mosaics. Allow more if you stay for Mass.

    1. The Stations of the Cross across the open ground
    2. The lower Church of the Relic
    3. The upper church and its mosaics
    4. The bell tower, if it is open
How to Visit

Entering as a pilgrim, not a tourist.

The sanctuary is free. It stands about eight hundred metres south of the Divine Mercy sanctuary and the two are joined by a path across open ground, with the Stations of the Cross along it. The walk is not difficult but it is exposed, and it is uphill in one direction. Kraków city transport reaches both sanctuaries; check the current stop and line before you set out.

  • Daily Mass in the upper church
  • Veneration of the relics in the lower Church of the Relic
  • Pilgrim group liturgies, often in languages other than Polish
  • Prayer along the Stations of the Cross laid out on the open ground
Current Practical Information · reviewed August 5, 2026

Free, separate from the Divine Mercy sanctuary, and about a fifteen-minute walk from it.

Entry
Free
Distance from Łagiewniki
About 800 metres on foot across open ground
Relics
In the lower church
Tower and museum
Separate, seasonal, ticketed
Access
Lifts and level routes within the complex; the outdoor path has slopes
Custody
A distinct sanctuary, not part of the Divine Mercy sanctuary
Two sanctuaries, two schedules
This sanctuary and the Divine Mercy sanctuary keep separate Mass times, separate custody and separate websites. Check both if you are planning a day around the pair.
Mass
Mass is celebrated daily in the upper church, with additional liturgies for pilgrim groups, often in languages other than Polish.
Veneration of the relics
The relics are venerated in the lower church, which keeps its own quieter rhythm than the upper one.
The walk from Łagiewniki
The path between the two sanctuaries crosses open, exposed ground with slopes, and it climbs in one direction.
Additional schedule notes

Tower and museum

  • Tickets for the tower and the museum are sold within the centre, not at the church door.

Inside the sanctuary

  • Lifts connect the two church levels, and the centre's routes are wide enough for wheelchairs.
Relics, Tombs, Sacred Objects

What pilgrims come to venerate here.

The reliquary of the blood of Saint John Paul II

First-class relic

Enclosed in the altar of the lower Church of the Relic

Sanctuary of Saint John Paul II, Kraków
Documented

The sanctuary records that the blood was taken from the pope during examinations at the Gemelli clinic in the last period of his life, was kept by his secretary Cardinal Stanisław Dziwisz, and was placed in the altar of the lower church at the sanctuary's erection on 11 June 2011.

Papal vestments, pastoral cross and tomb slab

Second-class relics and memorials

Displayed in the lower church and its oratories

Sanctuary of Saint John Paul II, Kraków
Documented

Vestments, a mitre and the pastoral cross used by John Paul II, together with a slab from his first tomb in the Vatican grottoes, held by the sanctuary with recorded provenance from the papal household.

Source note Traditional attributions are presented as tradition, with documentation named where it exists.

Connected Saints

How this place gathers the saints.

Saint John Paul II Sanctuary of Saint John Paul II, Kraków An ampoule of his blood, taken during his final illness and given by Cardinal Stanisław Dziwisz, is enclosed in the altar of the lower church.
Continue Your Pilgrimage · Continue the day

Within walking distance.

Map · Kraków, Poland

Plan around this place.

Editorial sources

Written from the sanctuary's own site and the Archdiocese of Kraków. The sanctuary is presented as institutionally distinct from the Divine Mercy sanctuary because it is, and the photograph used is of this church rather than of the Divine Mercy basilica. The provenance of the blood relic is given as the sanctuary itself records it.

Official

sjanpawel2.pl

Last reviewed

August 5, 2026

Photo credits
  1. Hero. Photo: Mathieu Mars, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Source. CC BY-SA 4.0.
  2. Under a kilometre of open ground. Photo: Krystyna Pruchniewska, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Source. CC BY 3.0.