Mikołaj Zebrzydowski founded the sanctuary at the start of the 1600s, building the church and monastery between 1604 and 1609 and entrusting them to the Bernardine (Franciscan) friars, who still care for it. The chapels are linked by two sets of paths, one following the Passion of Christ and one the life, dormition and Assumption of Mary, and pilgrims walk and pray them like an extended Way of the Cross. The site has been on the UNESCO World Heritage List since December 1999.
For anyone following St. John Paul II, this is the place that explains his prayer. In 1979 he told the people there: "I ask you to pray for me here during my life and after my death." In 2002, on his last visit to Poland, he repeated the request.
Good to know before you go: the basilica, with the venerated image of Our Lady of Kalwaria, can be visited in a short stop, but the paths are the point, and the full routes cover several kilometers of hilly ground. Older pilgrims do well to pray in the basilica and walk only to the nearest chapels. The sanctuary is busiest in Holy Week, when the Passion is re-enacted on the paths, and in the week of the Assumption in August; in 2026 the main Assumption procession and Mass fell on Sunday, August 16, after the procession of Mary's funeral on the Friday. On those days expect very large crowds and plan the whole day around Kalwaria. The friars publish the basilica's Mass times themselves; check them in the week you travel.