Exploring cultures and communities – the slow way

To walk through the door of the church is to leave modern Poland and enter a space suffused with exotic incense and the rich iconography of European Orthodoxy. A note on the Polish Orthodox church in Jelenia Góra.

article summary —

You could be forgiven for thinking that Poland is Catholic through and through. But in truth it is not. We have touched before in hidden europe on the Islamic villages of eastern Poland. Walk the main street of Jelenia Góra in southwest Poland and you will find much that is familiar from other Polish towns. Pizza galore, lots of outside cafés with Carlsberg umbrellas (but serving Polish beer) and towards the end of the road, high up on a hoarding, a fading post of the late Polish Pope smiling benignly on the commercial mayhem below. The view of the Pope is obscured partly by a small church that dominates the scene.


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About the authors

hidden europe

and manage hidden europe, a Berlin-based editorial bureau that supplies text and images to media across Europe. Together they edit hidden europe magazine. Nicky and Susanne are dedicated slow travellers. They delight in discovering the exotic in the everyday.

This article was published in hidden europe 24.