The Ursuline Sisters’ Chapel and House in Jaszczurówka
In 1932, one of the co-owners of the Koci Borek Villa in Jaszczurówka joined the Congregation of the Ursuline Sisters and donated her share of the property to the order. A year later, the remaining part of the villa was purchased, and before World War II the sisters built a brick convent with a chapel next to it, which was consecrated in 1938.
From the very beginning, the sisters operated a daycare center for children in the house. After the war, it served as an orphanage and later, continuing to the present day, as a kindergarten.
Beginning in 1965, Karol Wojtyła, the Archbishop of Kraków and future Pope John Paul II, spent the first week of January at the Ursuline convent almost every year, using it as his winter holiday retreat. From here, he set off on skiing trips and mountain hikes. He also occasionally visited during the year for short periods of rest.
Pope John Paul II visited the Ursuline Sisters in Jaszczurówka on the evening of June 5, 1997, while returning from Morskie Oko. During the visit, he spent a few moments in the room where he had stayed during his winter visits for many years.
Today,Karol Wojtyła’s former room in the Ursuline convent remains preserved in the same condition in which he left it during his last visit in 1978.