Paper short abstract:

This paper analyzes various concepts of the sacred attached tothe Royal Hill in Kraków. 'Traditional' and 'alternative' religious practices performed at the Hill not only challenge but also influence ordinary worship routines related to the Hill's complex religious-heritage landscape and materiality

Paper long abstract:

The Royal Hill in the city of Kraków (Poland) generates and absorbs many concepts of the sacred. The multivocal religious landscape of the Hill attracts seemingly different groups of worshipers who perform specific patterns of worship routines. The Hill is renown as a significant Christian pilgrimage site. The Roman Catholic cathedral is connected to the cults of medieval and contemporary Polish saints. The Cathedral is also an important historic monument celebrated by many Poles as a temple of 'national heritage' and 'Polish Pantheon' where royal tombs and sarcophagi of national heroes can be seen. While the Christian history of Poland is celebrated in the Cathedral and in the Castle's museum, the Royal Hill also attracts neo-Pagans searching for places and material objects connected to pre-Christian Slavic rites. Another sacred spot is related to the 'earth chakra' - the energy spot or a ley line believed to be located at the Hill. Groups of energy seekers, 'alternative' spirituality practitioners, followers of 'Oriental religions', non-conventional healers perform their practices at the site, even though the cathedral and museum managers oppose them and restrict access to a very small 'energetic area'.

I am proposing to use an example of the Royal Hill in Kraków to discuss complexity and diversity of contemporary worship routines. At the Hill, varying concepts of the sacred are being celebrated by different groups of people who use the same space. Conflict and cohabitation, competition and mutual borrowing, separation and mingling shape 'alternative' as well as more 'traditional' worship routines.