The Reconciliation Mass is probably the most important event with which Krzyżowa is associated. It was celebrated on 12 November 1989 in the courtyard of the current ”Krzyżowa” Foundation and had an international and unprecedented character. The mass was attended by the heads of two states – Poland and Germany – Prime Minister Tadeusz Mazowiecki and Chancellor Helmut Kohl, who, while exchanging a sign of peace, embraced each other in a telling gesture, captured in photographs as a symbol of Polish-German reconciliation.
This event became an important step on the way to building friendly Polish-German relations and establishing the “Krzyżowa” Foundation for Mutual Understanding in Europe. In remembrance of it, we would like to invite you to take a walk around our courtyard which years ago was a venue for thousands of participants of the Reconciliation Mass. Its story is told by Aleksandra Królak-Wąsowicz.