History
The hill known as Jasna Gora was probably used as part of the same defensive system as the castles along the Szlak Orlich Gniazd. In the fourteenth century , it came under the control of Ladislaus II, whose main possession was the independent duchy of Opole on the other side of the Silesian frontier. In 1382, he founded the monastery here, donating the miraculous icon a couple of years later. Ladislaus spent his final years imprisoned in his own castle, having fallen into disgrace for trying to prevent the union with Lithuania. Nevertheless, the monastery quickly attracted pilgrims from a host of nations and was granted the special protection of the Jagiellonian and Waza dynasties, though it was not until the fifteenth century that a shrine of stone and brick was built. In the first half of the seventeenth century , the monastery was enclosed by a modern fortification system as a bulwark of Poland's frontiers - and its Catholic faith - at a time of Europe-wide political and religious conflicts. Its worth was proved in the six-week-long siege of 1655 by the Swedes, who failed to capture it in spite of having superior weapons and almost 4000 troops ranged against just 250 defenders. This sparked off an amazing national fightback against the enemy, who had occupied the rest of the country against little resistance, and ushered in Poland's short period as a European power of the first rank. In the early eighteeth century the Black Madonna was crowned Queen of Poland in an attempt by the clergy to whip up patriotism and fill the political void created by the Russian-sponsored "Silent Sejm", which had reduced the nation to a puppet state. Jasna Gora was the scene of another heroic defence in 1770, when it was held by the Confederates of Bar against greater Russian forces, and retained by them until after the formal partitioning of Poland two years later. Czestochowa was initially annexed by Prussia, but after a few years as part of Napoleon's Duchy of Warsaw, it served as a frontier fortress of the Russian Empire for more than a century. It was incorporated into the new Polish state after World War I , when the icon's royal title was reaffirmed. Towards the end of World War II , Soviet troops defused bombs left by the retreating Nazis that might finally have destroyed the monastery. They later had cause to regret their actions, as although Czestochowa itself developed into a model communist industrialized city, Jasna Gora became a major focus of opposition to the communist regime. The Church skilfully promoted the pilgrimage as a display of patriotism and passive resistance, a campaign that received a huge boost in 1978 with the election of Karol Wojtyla, archbishop of Krakow and a central figure in its conception, as Pope John Paul II . His devotion to this shrine ensured worldwide media attention for Poland's plight; as a consequence, praying at Jasna Gora has become an essential photo-opportunity for the new breed of democratic politicians.
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