The article presents the visitors’ motivations and behavior at the pilgrimage center in Krakow (Poland). Here, the relation between these elements, i.e. whether their motivations have a correlation with what buildings they visit, is emphasized for the first time. The most important motivations for visits were religious and tourist ones, often rated equally high by the same respondents. They visited religious, cultural and tourist buildings and facilities. The stay of visitors with religious motivations was not limited to religious practices, but was extended by tourist behavior. Similarly, visitors with tourist motivations visited religious buildings and participated in religious practices. However, they visit tourist and cultural facilities more often. Additionally, the three groups of respondents were categorized and, on the basis of importance of the religious and tourist motivations, three types were distinguished, i.e. pilgrims, religious tourists and tourists. Their characteristic has been expanded by the analysis of their behavior. Nowadays, visitors’ motivations and behavior at pilgrimage centers include those typical for pilgrims and tourists in the traditional meaning. In addition to their religious function, these sites offer cultural and tourist facilities. The article highlights the dedifferentiation approach to visitors’ motivations and behavior, and in respect of the spatial organization of pilgrimage centers.

There are debates in the research literature about the mechanisms responsible for the formation of local development trajectories. What is emphasised, as particularly scarce, are longitudinal studies which show how historical, social and institutional structures are reproduced and/or transformed into new paths of development in the case of industrial towns. This paper aims to capture the role of various social, cultural and institutional features that constitute localised capabilities, in the process of transition from an old to a new developmental path for older industrial towns. The authors use case studies of three medium-sized industrial centres in Poland: Dzierżoniów, Starachowice and Mielec, to illustrate how localised capabilities are shaped by the interplay of earlier economic activity and the characteristics of local firms, on the one hand, and the evolving social, cultural and institutional attributes of the particular town and its region on the other. As a result, industrial towns may differ significantly in their ability to absorb exogenous impulses, as well as their capacity to transform and recombine them into a new development pathway that is more resilient than the old one.

The beginning of the twentieth century was a time of intensive development of geographical research on tourism, as well as the establishment of tourism research centers in many European countries. The Jagiellonian University School of Tourism played an important role in the development of tourism geography and education, spatial and regional planning, and personnel training for tourism developing in the 1930s in Poland. Tourism education in the school was characterized by a modern curriculum and forms of teaching, including fieldwork, focusing on developing practical skills, and linking research topics with the teaching process. The school conducted extensive research, publishing and documentary activities. The achievements of the Jagiellonian University School of Tourism helped raise awareness in society of the importance of tourism in the socio-economic development of regions and cities. This article presents the history of the Jagiellonian University School of Tourism and highlights its role in the development of tourism research and education in Europe. The school is mentioned among the pioneering centers of tourism, i.e., Robert Glucksmann's Tourism Research Institute at the Berlin School of Commerce, Walter Hunziker's and Kurt Krapf's tourism seminar in St. Gallen, and Raoul Blanchard's Institute of Alpine Geography in Grenoble.

Combining religious and national symbolism is not a new phenomenon. There are known examples of countries where there were or still are connections between nationality and religion. Pilgrimage centres are examples of symbolic religious landscapes based on the presence of the sacred. Such anthropogenic landscapes are a visible result of culture formed under the influence of religion, a special spiritual and often national heritage expressed through sacred objects, visual evidence of religiousness and, likewise, national identity. Here, we present a detailed analysis of religious and patriotic symbolism present in the largest pilgrimage centres in Poland. Additionally, the paper discusses a. the historical and socio-cultural conditions of the presence and significance of these elements in religious landscapes; b. the strong relationships between religiousness and the sense of national identity, and c. the resulting significant importance of pilgrimage centres in the development and consolidation of a sense of national identity. Symbolic elements in the analysed pilgrimage centres refer to both universal religious content and cults popular in the Roman Catholic Church, as well as to the identity of the analysed places. In addition to religious symbolism, national and patriotic symbols often occur in Polish sanctuaries. Their occurrence is historically conditioned and, to a large extent, results from the strong ties between religiousness and national identity.