Poland (OSV News) — An army of little violinists dressed in traditional attire of Polish highlanders or “górale,” went viral playing their Christmas carol in a gorgeous church in southern Poland making a local legendary children’s orchestra go global “Mala Armia Janosika,” or “The Little Army of Janosik,” is a well-known regional children’s orchestra in Poland But the popularity of the Christmas midnight Mass video recorded in the Church of St Mary Magdalene in Rabka-Zdrój — a picturesque town located 42 miles south of Kraków — surpassed all expectations of Damian Palasz “I would never expect this,” Palasz told OSV News Dec “I came back home after midnight Mass in Rabka and I thought in the middle of the night — maybe I’ll post this little video people may want to see this caroling by our orchestra on Christmas Day.” Palasz said the kids were playing at midnight Mass since “the orchestra was born in 2015 out of my dream that kids play at Christmas midnight Mass,” and the conductor thought after the 2024 Mass “it’s worth to repeat one carol at the end and that’s when I recorded that video when after Mass the atmosphere was a little more laid back,” he said When he posted his video on Tik-Tok and Facebook shares “went wild,” Palasz told OSV News American influencer Ian Miles Cheong shared the video on Dec “This is Poland and it is beautiful,” gaining 3 million views and 110,000 likes Former Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki posted the caroling by Mala Armia Janosika on Dec commenting that it’s “beautiful.” Jack Posobiec Mala Armia Janosika bears the name of Juraj Janosik who — legends say — stole from the wealthy to give to the poor A Polish 1970s television series made him a popular figure in Poland with most Poles treating the famous highlander as their own “I founded the orchestra for children but it’s a serious musical project,” Palasz said “We want to give an example to children that Polish tradition is important and Christmas is a special time to show it,” he said The orchestra consists of roughly 300 children from age 4 to teenagers and some adults supporting them with hundreds of children playing their violin in a perfectly simultaneous tune “It’s not that we give them a violin and say: ‘Play.’ Each child is well prepared at home they can perform,” Palasz told OSV News including those televised by national channels they gave a concert for the beatification of the Ulma family in Markowa they played during the audience with Pope Francis “It was so beautiful,” Palasz said adding that it was a real treat for the children as they travelled in several buses across the city with the police escort Czarna Madonno” — “Madonna Black Madonna,” the hymn to Our Lady of Czestochowa and “Barka,” one of the favourite songs of St when American influencers posted our video to play for American Polonia,” or the Polish community in the U.S. hoping that a generous sponsor would bring the full plane of little musicians across the ocean “It would be so beautiful to sing ‘Jezusa Narodzonego’ for Poles in the U.S.,’ he said about the Christmas carol that went viral in traditional highlander “gwara,” or local dialect — “Jezusa narodzonego wszyscy witajmy” — “Jesus who is born — “Jemu po koledzie dary wzajem oddajmy,” — “To Him sklaniajmy swe czolo.” — “Let’s give cheerfully — “Sklaniajmy swe czolo Panu naszemu.” — “Let us bow our foreheads to our Lord!”  Print Catholic Review Media communicates the Gospel and its impact on people’s lives in the Archdiocese of Baltimore and beyond Catholic Review Media provides intergenerational communications that inform inspire and engage Catholics and all of good will in the mission of Christ through diverse forms of media Catholic Media Assocation Maryland-Delaware-DC Press Association The Associated Church Press Victoria Woodcock selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter the gate stares me down with giant cast-iron eyes Behind it looms a wooden house lifted straight from a fairytale it is neighboured incongruously by boxy midcentury apartment blocks in the Polish spa town of Rabka-Zdrój “I didn’t choose this house; it kind of came to me,” says artist Paulina Olowska of the building she bought in 2009 “Rabka has all these amazing abandoned buildings – and I found this one.” She swiftly inaugurated the house with a group project called the Mycorial Theatre courtesy of Pace Gallery/Alina LefaOlowska with Bronka her Polish Tatra sheepdog © Kacper KasprzykThis rare example of traditional regional architecture has since become part heritage-preservation venture (Olowska worked with a local craftsman part artist residency and part project space It’s a place that both provides inspiration for Olowska’s art and is an art installation itself “Spending time at Kadenówka is like taking a clear walk in Paulina’s brain,” says Karine Haimo Olowska was drawn to the fashion editor-turned-photographer’s experimental images on a number of levels: “We share a certain melancholia for fashion [a feeling] that fashion has a symbolic dimension connected to womanhood and an understanding of how spirituality and symbols can be incorporated into different mediums.” Olowska in the attic room with Bronka; the roof was renovated by local craftsman Tadeusz Harkabuz © Kacper KasprzykAmy the Mamuna by Luka Woźniczko hangs over the piano in the main hall © Kacper KasprzykOlowska moved from Berlin to Rabka-Zdrój 16 years ago explaining that her husband’s parents lived in the town “Escapism was also a part of it,” she says A major inspiration was the long-sidelined Polish painter illustrator and set designer Zofia Stryjeńska “She started to work with design and tapestry and was connecting to fairytales and folklore and all in a cartoonish style that was closer to Walt Disney than any Polish paintings She kind of directed me towards the countryside because she was always writing about how nature had a huge influence on her and her dreams and visions ‘Maybe this is what I’m missing in this Berlin nightclub scene?’ You know talking nonsense about the art world at 2am.” She and her husband moved into a typical rural house she discovered a broader way of life centred around mythology dressed today in a traditional folk‑style dress the off-white fabric embroidered with red figures and floral motifs inspired by traditional Polish paper cut-outs supplied by her “mushroom dealer” in Kraków courtesy of Pace/Alina LefaThe back of the Artist House Kadenówka by Olowska sits by a rowan tree (a mamuna is a female swamp demon in Slavic folkore) © Kacper Kasprzyk“It’s a theatre,” says Olowska gesturing around the main central space of Kadenówka overlooked on all sides by a first-floor balcony masquerade balls and summer and New Year’s Eve parties.” The house was designed in 1932 by Adam Kaden and Adam was the bon vivant of the family,” says Olowska The house is an anomaly in its combination of architectural influences: modernist Zakopane style (the arts and crafts-adjacent aesthetic movement pioneered by Stanisław Witkiewicz and named after a nearby town) and Hutsulian “The Hutsulian take is from the Ukrainian highlanders,” says Olowska highlighting its influence on details such as the carved wooden door handles and the small sun- and moon-shaped windows in the loft “Folk is one of the themes of this house.”  Check your internet connection or browser settings Olowska is building on this theme with her own collections Włoclawek and Łysa Góra line the walls of the kitchen; there are Zakopane style rugs on the floors; and patchworked bedspreads from the Cepelia a state-run cooperative founded in 1949 that shut up shop four years ago even the garbage cans.” She shows me a concrete rubbish bin shaped like a bear outside the front door: “It’s from socialist times.” Olowska’s vision isn’t only about nostalgia She’s interested in how these creative and romantic notions can be relevant for a new generation She does this by inviting international artists to Kadenówka such as the American Marnie Weber and Devon‑based Alexis Soul-Gray who stayed there for 10 days with her family “I think Paulina looks for unusual talent to support,” says Soul-Gray “She has a motherly intent to help other artists.” “You are going to know the whole Polish art scene with all these names,” she says happily this will be a museum for contemporary art and folklore.” She has further plans to open a museum of puppetry in Rabka in the old puppet theatre building she covered with murals 10 years ago with its hiking trails among the picturesque Gorce mountains In the 1920s it bloomed as a spa destination taking advantage of the mineral-rich waters of the Raba river and was also used a place of rehabilitation for sick children “It’s very interesting because it has these huge old sanatoriums,” says Olowska The Town of Children of the World by Polish writer Beata Chomątowska but I sensed something underneath,” Chomątowska says a mysterious place that has been somehow lost in time My colleague described it as the Polish Twin Peaks I spoke to people who were ‘cured’ here as kids and their memories are full of horror.”  courtesy of Pace/Pawel DudziakPhuter o Jakha a tapestry by Romani artist Małgorzata Mirga-Tas © Kacper KasprzykOlowska standing by Luka Woźniczko’s Hekate table © Kacper KasprzykThe darkness of Rabka is present in Olowska’s work too It’s there in the winter landscapes and black-clad women of her new paintings shown at Pace London last year and now residents of Kadenówka which are inspired in part by the Polish Marzanna dolls that symbolise Morana It’s a Slavic tradition to burn and then drown the straw-braided doll on the first day of spring to mark the end of winter – a ritual that Olowska carried out in 2021 when she co-curated the show Mora Zmora: Femme mythological figures in Slavic folklore at Organistówka (another of Rabka’s wooden buildings next to the towering 17th-century church of Saint Mary Magdalene that today houses a folk museum) Her second artists’ gathering at Kadenówka was dedicated to mycology and magic “Dealing with witchcraft influenced my work a lot but then – and I don’t know if it  was connected or not – I actually had a real meltdown,” she recalls “I started to question everything.” And she hid away her magic books “My priority with my work is to take things that are out of the mainstream and try to question them,” she concludes People are drawn to it because it’s unregulated As to whether the house is still haunted – “What do you think?” Olowska shrugs Paulina Olowska and Deborah Turbeville: Widows of the Wind is at Pace Geneva from 21 November to 7 February 2025 Five people have been killed by falling trees as strong winds battered southern Poland on Monday reaching a speed of 96mph (155km/h) in the highest parts of the Tatra mountains two women and a six-year-old died after a tree crushed them Another woman died when a tree fell on her car in the town of Zakopane at the foot of the Tatra mountains a spokesperson for Zakopane’s firefighters A falling tree in the same town killed a child according to a spokesperson for medical responders Local authorities have issued a warning of dangerous winds reaching at least 62mph and have closed mountain tracks in Tatra national park Firefighters intervened 140 times on Monday morning to remove trees blocking roads and help homeowners with destroyed roofs The winds followed three days of unusually warm weather temperatures reached a new record for that month rising to 26.4C in the southern town of Tarnów has been known as a treatment centre for children since the 19th century In January 2017 the level of benzo(a)pyrene Rabka-Zdroj could lose its spa-town status says Zbigniew Doniec of the town’s Institute of Tuberculosis and Lung Diseases This article appeared in the Europe section of the print edition under the headline “Patriotic smog” Discover stories from this section and more in the list of contents George Simion will face Nicusor Dan, a mainstream candidate, in a run-off There are five luxuries it can no longer feasibly afford Friedrich Merz’s career is one of unforced errors and puzzling missteps. But he is serious about Europe Both Donald Trump and Ukraine’s diplomats will consider it a success Tunnel T4 on the S7 Lubień-Rabka Zdroj   Per la versione in Italiano: https://www.stradeeautostrade.it/attrezzature-e-componenti/la-galleria-t4-sulla-superstrada-s7-lubien-rabka-zdroj/ The S7 Lubień-Rabka Zdrój roadway through the Voivodato Malopolskie region is divided into three sections The second – the most expensive and time-consuming section of the investment – is being built under the mountain Mały Luboń The two-chamber tunnel will be over 4 km long in total The task included the preparation of the complete tunnel design for the concreting of the fixed tunnel lining using the austrian method Each chamber will carry traffic in one direction The tunnel will have emergency passages between the chambers as well as the complete equipment and technical infrastructure For the construction of the tunnel it was necessary to drill about 1922.4 m of the left tunnel and about 1919.6 m of the right tunnel Other parts of it are being carried out inside an excavation that will be covered The excavation of the tunnel began with the right-hand northern portal at the beginning of March 2017 and the completion of the entire tunnel will be completed by the middle of 2021 The project of the TMK carriage for the fixed lining was carried out in the MK system with the application of TMK elements The main structure of the carriage is a frame made up of MK braces as well as TMK plates and nodes and special TMK elements distributed every 1.5 m The structure can be divided into several main parts The frame support is a beam made of DUPN profiles that guarantees the support of the loads that are transmitted to the floor during the concreting process and is equipped with wheels to move the carriage The support structure is made up of the V frames on which the main trusses are mounted in two rows the wing structures are suspended from the TMK nodes and above the V frames there are special individually-made structures for the formwork of the fixed lining cornice The structure of the carriage is completed by the main brace of the lining with a geometry that is adapted to the geometry of the tunnel The entire carriage is covered with 5 mm thick covering sheets which are attached to the MK braces by means of omega clips The carriage is lined with inspection windows to control the pouring of the concrete mixture and diaphragms for the distribution of the concrete mixture The inspection tubes are located in the lining concavity and allow the correct filling of the section to be checked Complementing the complete equipment of the carriage are the pneumatic vibrators that form a congruent system Another factor that guarantees smooth handling of the carriage is the hydraulic system The entire system is supplied by the FPT pump and allows for the hydraulic release of the wings the levelling of the carriage and its displacement the wings are anchored to the previously constructed floors by means of DW26 tie rods The carriage is equipped with a communication and operation system using VM beam platforms and F4 ladder system The design of the carriage needed to be adapted to a complex tunnel geometry especially in the area of the cornice under the floor slab A special cornice plate was prepared for this purpose allowing the loads from the concreting to be supported and allowing efficient formwork removal without the need for the use of hydraulic systems Pre-fabricated sheets of the lining were also applied to the carriage to ensure a good surface finish of the concrete The assembly of the carriage on-site was the responsibility of Ulma (www.ulmaconstruction.it) The assembly differed from the normal assembly of the tunnel carriage as it took place inside the tunnel the access to the station was carried out through the evacuation passage Therefore the division of the assembly into stages had to be adapted to the transport possibilities of the elements through the evacuation passage The main structural elements of the carriage were prepared beforehand in an assembly station The assembly was divided and carried out in the following stages: first the DUPN bottom profile was assembled with cylinders and wheels Then the V-frames were assembled in tandem and stabilised accordingly Then the special cornice plates were mounted the upper truss was prepared with the complete lining and equipment and then this whole set was mounted on the carriage by two Manitou vehicles The last stage was the placement of the pre-assembled wings of the carriage with lining on the tunnel floors and the placing of the carriage on them and the fixing of the wings to the carriage by means of D40 bolts Tag, , , Aziende, Tunnel e gallerie Luoghi Materiali Tecnologie,