Podróże cystersów oraz idea, organizacja i promocja szlaku cysterskiego w Polsce

In this article founded on the grounds of standard documents and various source notations we present deliberations on the topic of the journeys by Cistercian monks during the medieval period and we raise the issue of the idea behind, the promotion and organization of Cistercian routes in Europe and Poland. In 1990 the Council of European undertook a decision to create a tourist path based upon „the foot steps of the Cistercian monks” under the auspices of the international programme „European Cultural Routes”. This idea quickly spread in various European countries, becoming like many similar routes (e.g. the Viking routes, the Roman architectural routes, the baroque routes and the routes of St. Jacob), an element in learning our European cultural identity. These routes may be followed by believers and nonbelievers alike, i.e. those that follow the routes of the Cistercian monks looking for religious, religo-cultural and cultural experiences. Everyone is certain to find there a world where the present and the past intermingle. People can „enter places” where they can come face to face with the philosophy which became foundation for the formation of the Cistercian and other religious Orders (e.g. the Benedictine Order). Their philosophy, based upon the motto „ora et labora”, which way of life for several centuries still existed (in the closed monasteries) and still exists (in the still existent monasteries) to this day within various Orders, building a deep reflection to the past revealing an eternal and on-going need for a balance between „spirit and body” which in today’s busy and hectic times are just as relevant.