The Highlanders’ Chapel is an example of the typical religious wooden architecture you can find in southern Poland (Podhale). Even today, a significant number of Polish immigrants from that mountainous region of Poland live today in Chicago and the surrounding area.

Inside the chapel, you can see the figure of Christ in a crown of thorns. As we look upon the suffering Christ in prayer before His Passion, let us try to enter into the silence of our hearts and prepare to meditate on the Passion of our Lord, praying the Stations of the Cross (the First Station is next to the chapel).

This chapel is an expression of the faith of the Polish Highlanders and the fostering on American soil of the culture of the Tatra Mountain region, which they brought with them as immigrants to this land. At the top, the small figure of Our Lady of Ludźmierz reminds all Highlanders of her maternal care; and the stone placed at the foot of the statue of Christ, brought here from the Tatra Mountains themselves, expresses the deep bond that joins the Polish American Highlanders with the mountainous region from which they trace their family roots in Poland. On the left wall of the chapel, you can find a wooden sculpted panel depicting St. John Paul II, who formerly, as Shepherd of the Archdiocese of Kraków, embraced in his pastoral care the faithful from the Polish Highlands with an especially fervent devotion to Our Lady of Ludźmierz.