RELIGIOUS TOURISM IN AREAS OF ENVIRONMENTAL VALUE IN POLAND

Abstract

The study presents pilgrimage sites located in environmentally valuable areas – the areas subject to two forms of nature protection in Poland, i.e. national parks and natural landscape parks. The purpose of the paper is to present, in quantitative terms, shrines in the protected areas of Poland and to analyse the scale and forms of tourism relating to these sites. The subject of the research
includes only shrines of the Roman Catholic Church. A descriptive-analytic method, a dynamic-comparative method, as well as statistical methods were used to present the study results. Over 70 of more than 830 shrines that operate in Poland nowadays are located in areas of nature protected by legislation. At present, in the area of nine Polish national parks, there are twelve shrines and pilgrimage sites that are frequently visited by pilgrims and tourists traveling for religious or religious and cognitive reasons. Nowadays, in the area of Polish natural landscape parks (with buffer zones), there are more than 60 shrines.