Poland’s Black Madonna shrine draws 4.3 million visitors in 2018
PR dla Zagranicy
Grzegorz Siwicki
01.01.2019 11:00
The internationally renowned Black Madonna shrine in the southern Polish city of Częstochowa says it attracted 4.3 million pilgrims and tourists in 2018.
![The Jasna Góra monastery in the southern Polish city of Częstochowa, home to the country's revered Black Madonna icon. Photo: Aw58 [CC BY 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons](http://external.polskieradio.pl/files/1680e632-fd53-4463-bb00-57573a3cf50f.file "The Jasna Góra monastery in the southern Polish city of Częstochowa, home to the country's revered Black Madonna icon. Photo: Aw58 [CC BY 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons")
The Jasna Góra monastery in the southern Polish city of Częstochowa, home to the country's revered Black Madonna icon. Photo: Aw58 [CC BY 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
More than 834,000 pilgrims visited the site in organised groups from across Poland, with 124,000 arriving there on foot, according to the shrine’s press office.
The shrine also welcomed groups of long-distance runners and pilgrims arriving on horseback, bikes and rollerblades.
Among foreign pilgrims and tourists, Germans (25,000), Italians (15,000) and Americans (12,500) were the most numerous national groups, followed by Britons, Japanese and Austrians.
The Catholic shrine was last year the venue of many events held under the auspices of President Andrzej Duda to mark a century since the nation regained its independence after 123 years of foreign rule.
(mk/gs)