Szczepanów: Sanctuary, Pilgrimage Routes and Local History

Szczepanów invites you to explore its sacred history through several specific places and routes. The Sanctuary of Saint Stanislaus of Szczepanów, a circular route with information boards, and local memorial sites each offer a different perspective. A stone communal well in the market square adds a very different testament to local life.

Sanctuary, Circular Route and Via Regia

The Parish Church of St Mary Magdalene and St Stanislaus in Szczepanów was elevated to the status of a minor basilica by Pope John Paul II in 2003. This is a notable landmark for anyone interested in the town’s religious history. The Sanctuary of Saint Stanislaus is also the point of reference for two pilgrimage routes described in different ways.

A tourist and religious circular route runs around the sanctuary and through its immediate surroundings. It includes 20 information boards. This local loop sits alongside Via Regia Stage 14a, which runs from Szczepanów to Brzesko. Check local conditions before visiting.

Stage 14a is a six-kilometre access route connecting the Sanctuary of Saint Stanislaus of Szczepanów to the pilgrimage route network. The circular route and the access route thus differ in how they are described: one stays within the sanctuary and its immediate surroundings, while the other connects to the network by running to Brzesko. This distinction is also useful when planning a pilgrimage. Check current route conditions before setting out.

Local History and Memorial Sites

Places of interest in Szczepanów include the bell tower in the parish cemetery and Military Cemetery No. 273 from the First World War. Both add their own historical themes to the religious sites. One is distinguished by its bell tower in the parish cemetery, while the other is associated with the First World War.

A stone communal well with a crank and shingle roof stands in the market square. It is the only surviving communal well of its kind and is no longer in use. Its details make it a distinctive local landmark: this is not another church site, but a well once used by the community, whose former function has now ceased.

If you are travelling with children, you can discuss your family’s interests in advance: is your main focus church history, the circular route with its 20 information boards, or individual local landmarks such as the well? This helps you shape the trip around a theme without combining the different routes and places into a single itinerary.

Brzesko in the Wider Travel Picture

The wider destination of Brzesko offers other cultural and landscape themes. The Via Regia runs from Brzesko through Jasień Brzeski and Brzeźnica to Bochnia. This is a different route description from the six-kilometre stage from Szczepanów to Brzesko. On the discovery route through the municipality of Brzesko, the Pantheon of Saints in Szczepanów is one of the stops. Other stops along the route include the natural monument “Romeo i Julia” in Mokrzyska and the Pavimentum Copernicanum in Brzesko.

Brzesko’s architecture and collections are also notable. The town hall is an eclectic building with a four-storey tower, built in 1909–1910. The Regional Museum displays two bourgeois interiors, landscapes, portraits, and memorabilia relating to local history. A historic section of the Church of St James the Apostle dates from the mid-15th century. Brzesko’s Jewish cemetery was entered in the register of monuments in 1992.

Brzesko also offers specific points of interest for those interested in the landscape and older traces of human settlement. At 394 metres above sea level, Bocheniec is the highest elevation in the Brzesko area. The eastern rampart remnant of a Wiślan hillfort dating from the turn of the 9th and 10th centuries survives there. It is about four metres high and 18 metres wide at its base. The signposted Szlak wokół Brzeska hiking trail adds a walking route to these themes.

In Okocim, an English-style landscape park dating from 1900 surrounds the palace, and is home to native and exotic trees and shrubs. Another architectural point of interest is the Brzesko–Okocim Brewery complex, with its surrounding buildings and the adjacent Goetz-Okocimski family palace and park complex. The Brzesko–Okocim Brewery complex, its surrounding buildings, and the adjacent Goetz-Okocimski family palace and park complex were built from 1845 onwards and expanded until the 1930s. Together with the sites in Szczepanów, these different highlights provide a basis for deciding which places to prioritise when planning your trip.

Discover More Destinations

Discover more destinations: Czchów, Biesiadki, Iwkowa, Mokrzyska, Połom Mały, Łysa Góra, Uszew, Brzesko.

Go to the wider travel overview: Brzesko.