Pope John Paul II

📍ul. Kościelna 7, 34-100 Wadowice, Poland

“I was Karol Wojtyła, born in May 1920 in a small first-floor apartment of two rooms and a kitchen at 7 Kościelna Street in Wadowice, beside the parish church; from our window I could see its sundial. The house belonged to a Jewish merchant, Mr Bałamuth, and Wadowice was a town where Catholics and Jews lived side by side; my closest friend was a Jewish boy, Jerzy Kluger, and we played football in the streets, with me in goal. My mother, Emilia, died when I was eight, and my only brother, Edmund, a young doctor, when I was twelve. After that it was just my father and me. He was a retired army officer, quiet and devout, and I often woke at night to see him on his knees in prayer. I acted in school plays and hiked and skied in the hills. After our final exams my friends and I celebrated with cream cakes — kremówki — in the market square. At eighteen my father and I moved to Kraków. The apartment is now a museum, with my skis and kayak paddle among the memories.”

Sources: Wikipedia: Holy Father John Paul II Family Home,_Wadowice domjp2.pl it.wadowice.pl