This Papal Trail is based on routes of the counties of Krosno, Jasło and Sanok, from Magura Wątkowska to Komańcza.

The Trail is based on documents and reports of participants of pioneer expeditions of Priest Karol Wojtyla in the 50s of the past century. On May 16 of the 2006 year the Trail was opened and consecrated by Bishop Kazimierz Górny. Paving and marking out the trail as well as its popularization give the authors a sense of fulfillment The Holy Father John Paul the II’s will, who wished to commemorate all trails he walked through.

The trail runs through the southern areas of the Counties of Jasło, Krosno and Sanok, from Magura Wątkowska to Komańcza. It runs along the Red Trail of The Main Trail of Beskid Mountains and it is marked with plates showing directions and places of the Priest Karol Wojtyla’s old hikes. 

Boards and plates with the whole network of the trail are located in places traditionally visited by pilgrims and tourists. Furthermore, they also show hiking sections that were unmarked. For that reason they are still some kind of challenge even to experienced and persistent hikers. The boards also show places of Priest Karol Wojtyla’s later stays on the Low Beskid Mountains and the Papal Pilgrimage in 1997.

Nowadays, tourists visiting The Low Beskid Mountains are not left alone to themselves, like it was in the past during the pioneering expeditions of Reverend Karol Wojtyla. Today, tourists and guests of this region can enjoy their stay in the agro-tourism farms, guesthouses and health resorts. Their addresses one can easily find in descriptions of trails or on the web sites of recreation centers, boarding houses, health resorts (called “sanatoria”) and agro-tourism farms on the Region of Low Beskid Mountains. This region id the lowest and most extensive part of The Beskid Mountains. Its main core is the Carpathian Ridge extends a length of 100 km from so called Tylicka Pass to the Lupkov Pass.

Throughout the history this land suffered from plundering and invasions of Hungarian army under command of King Mathias Korwin and Prince Rakoczi (older spelling Rakoczy). This area was also a witness of the historic Bar Confederation and the World War I, in which Karol Wojtyla’s father was taking part. During World War II in the region bloody battles for the Dukla Pass took place and after war also so called  “Akcja Wisła” (The Vistula Action) which have led to the displacement of Lemkov People. Today, numerous monuments, cemeteries and places of execusions are reminders of that tragic events in the past.

This mountains have also witnessed numerous excursions of the Rev. Karol Wojtyla. He was visiting Low Beskid in 1952 for the first time with a group of friends. Since that time, he was enchanted by this region, full of extraordinary landscapes with beautiful nature and silence. For this reason he returned to this area for a few times. The Low Beskid set itself in his memory and that’s why he mentioned about it in Rome while he was fulfilling his duty as a Head of The Roman Catholic Church as John Paul the II.

Source: City Office of Krosno http://visitkrosno.pl/en/ .