What stood here before
Devotion on this hill is some two and a half centuries older than the present church. A timber chapel holding a Pietà and a crucifix stood here in the fifteenth century, and the cult may go back further still, possibly encouraged by the Benedictines at nearby Lubiń.
The turning point came in 1495, with the healing of a paralysed man that local people took to be miraculous. Word travelled far enough that in 1512 Bishop Jan Lubrański of Poznań issued a decree permitting the Marian cult and the building of a church.
The image that pilgrims still kneel before was painted in 1540 by an unknown Greater Poland artist; in it the Virgin bears the title Spiritual Rose of the Holy Mountain. A diocesan commission declared the painting miraculous in 1726, and on 24 June 1928 Cardinal August Hlond crowned it on the authority of Pope Pius XI.
A Venetian model on a Polish hill
The present building was begun by Adam Konarzewski, who owned the surrounding estates, as a votive church. Work ran from 1675 to 1698, but after the founder's death his wife Zofia née Opalińska took the project over, and it was she who settled its final shape.
In place of the more modest original scheme she chose a design based on Santa Maria della Salute, Baldassare Longhena's church on the Grand Canal. The new plans came into force in 1677, carried out by the Italian architects then working across Greater Poland, Giorgio and Giovanni Catenazzi. The church was consecrated in 1698.
What came over from Venice above all was the idea of a centrally planned building on an octagon, with an ambulatory and a ring of chapels. The effect, though, is nothing like Venice: there the Salute rises out of water, while here the mass sits on a glacial rise and carries for kilometres across the fields, particularly on the approach from Gostyń.
The dome arrived fifty years late
The church was consecrated without its dome. That was added only between 1726 and 1728, to a design by Pompeo Ferrari, who was then working in Greater Poland for the Leszczyński family; Jan Adam Stier built it with him.
The dimensions still impress: about seventeen metres across and fifty metres high inside, with a ten-metre lantern above it carrying an orb and cross. The literature calls it the largest dome in Poland, and among the country's historic churches it is hard to name a bigger one.
The painting on the inner shell dates from 1746 and is the work of Georg Wilhelm Neunhertz, a Silesian painter also active in the monasteries of the region. Among the scenes are episodes from the life of St Philip Neri, founder of the community that keeps the hill.
Inside
The plan is centralised: an octagonal main space with an ambulatory around it, six chapels, and a transept. A room like this pulls the eye inward and upward, which in a Baroque pilgrimage church was exactly the point.
The high altar holding the miraculous image was made between 1723 and 1726 by Ignacy Provisore and Johann Albrecht Siegwitz, sculptors from Wrocław. The pulpit dates from 1756 and the organ, of 1766 to 1768, stands on the gallery.
The crypt holds the coffins of the founders and of deceased members of the congregation, among them Father Wawrzyniec Kuśniak (1788–1866), whose cause for beatification is under way.
The Oratorians, suppression and return
In 1668 Adam Konarzewski brought the Congregation of the Oratory of St Philip Neri to the Holy Mountain. It was the first Oratorian community on Polish soil, and it has run the sanctuary ever since, apart from a gap of some forty years.
That gap came with the Kulturkampf: in 1876 the Prussian authorities dissolved the congregation and the monastery passed to the diocese. The Oratorians returned in 1919.
The monastic buildings with their cloister garden went up between 1732 and 1748 to Ferrari's designs, and finishing work across the complex continued until 1780. The house now holds retreats for various professional groups, and the autumn fixture in its calendar is the Musica Sacromontana oratorio festival, run since 2006 by a society named after the composer Józef Zeidler, whose manuscripts are kept in the archive here.
Protection and titles
The complex entered the heritage register on 19 May 1956. In 1971 Pope Paul VI raised the church to the rank of minor basilica, and in 2008 an order of the President of Poland, dated 26 February, declared the Oratorian monastery at Gostyń-Głogówko a Historic Monument.
In 2023 the sanctuary received the bronze Gloria Artis medal, largely for its work on the music archive. For the Archdiocese of Poznań, the Holy Mountain remains the foremost Marian sanctuary.
Getting there
- By car — Gostyń lies about sixty kilometres south of Poznań on national road 12 between Leszno and Jarocin; the Holy Mountain, in the village of Głogówko, is a kilometre and a half east of the town centre.
- By train — the Leszno to Jarocin line runs through Gostyń, and the hill is a walk across town from the station.
- On foot or by bike — the hill is visible from the streets of Gostyń, so no map is needed; the walk takes under half an hour.
- On the way — Gostyń itself is worth a stop for the late Gothic church of St Margaret, begun in the first half of the fifteenth century, and the town hall rebuilt shortly before the First World War.
Worth knowing
An hour covers the church, but allow time to walk round the outside and to look back at the building from the fields — the dome reads quite differently from a distance than from the drive. This is a working pilgrimage sanctuary, so a visit fits around services rather than the other way round.
Anyone fond of early music should aim for the autumn festival: the concerts are held inside, under Ferrari's dome, and the acoustics are part of the monument.
How to get there and practical info
- Location
- Głogówko, Piaski commune, Gostyń County, Greater Poland Voivodeship — a moraine hill a kilometre and a half east of central Gostyń
- Built
- church 1675–1698, dome and lantern 1726–1728, monastery 1732–1748, finishing work to 1780
- Design
- after Baldassare Longhena's Santa Maria della Salute, built by Giorgio and Giovanni Catenazzi, dome by Pompeo Ferrari
- The dome
- about 17 metres across and 50 metres high, with a 10-metre lantern; painted by Georg Wilhelm Neunhertz in 1746
- Custodians
- the Congregation of the Oratory of St Philip Neri, brought here in 1668 — the first Oratorian house in Poland
- Heritage status
- heritage register since 19 May 1956; minor basilica since 1971; Historic Monument of Poland since 2008, by presidential order of 26 February
- Time needed
- an hour for the church, an hour and a half including the monastery grounds
- Current opening times and tickets
- website of the sanctuary on the Holy Mountain
When to go
The hill greens up before the fields around it, and the building reads best from the road out of Gostyń. Walking pilgrimages from neighbouring parishes start in spring.
The busiest season for pilgrims, especially around the Marian feasts. Under the dome it stays cool even in a heatwave.
Festival season for oratorio music, and the best light on the elevations. With the fields cleared, the dome carries a long way.
Few visitors and a quiet that suits the place. In winter the church tends to be open mainly around services.
Other sights in Greater Poland Voivodeship
Straight-line distances from „Basilica on the Holy Mountain" — calculated from real coordinates. By road it is often further.
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