Geography of religion as a field of research at the Jagiellonian University

Abstract

Geography as a field of research in Krakow first developed in the middle of the 19th century. The Faculty of Tourism at Jagiellonian University was the first to create a large program in pilgrimage research between 1936 and 1939. The politics of the next five decades hampered the development of the program, with full-time studies beginning in the 1980s. The geography of religion program focused on research on the global nature of pilgrimages. Key research interests included historical and spatial issues and their effect on infrastructural, social, and economic changes at centers of religious worship as well as in surrounding regions and countries.