Disputed spiritualities, contested heritages: Wawel Hill and its sacred aura (original) (raw)
This short description published in OUTLOOK section of the “Material Religion” is dedicated to part of my recent research conducted within the HERILIGON project (2016-2019, founded by HERA). I discuss the complexity of discourses and practices related to the Wawel hill in the city of Kraków, southern Poland. The hill – known also as the Royal Hill – hosts the medieval Roman Catholic cathedral (with royal tombs) and the Royal Castle (where the royal historical treasure and the Royal State Museum are located). Wawel hill is perceived in Poland as a “national Pantheon”, a historical monument as well as a pilgrimage site connected to the cults of medieval and contemporary Polish saints. It is where reliquary of the late pope - St. John Paul II - is exhibited next to the relics of Kraków’s medieval bishop, St. Stanislaus – the patron of Poland. Various discourses – historical and contemporary, religious and national, touristy and political – shape the lived space of Wawel hill today which is used, visited and experienced by various groups of people. The controversial burial of the late Polish president – Lech Kaczyński – in the Wawel Cathedral after a 2010 plane crash in Russia, triggered a public dispute about national heritage sites, Catholic churches and contemporary relations between religion and politics. However, the complexity of Wawel hill stretches even further. The popular belief that one of the “seven earth chakras” is located there attracts Polish and foreign tourists, spiritual seekers and meditation practitioners. These diverse groups publicly perform their practices at the site, even though the cathedral and museum managers oppose them and restrict access to a very small “energetic area”. Ethnographic material collected in Kraków reveals the multivocality of the Wawel hill, therefore, where the “sacred” is variously lived, practised, defined and negotiated.
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