The Silver Mountain

The Camaldolese Monks and the Silver Mountain: An Exhibition at the Barbican, Cracow (until the end of July).

On a bright May morning this year, the remote monastery of Bielany was flooded with such a vast number of pilgrims that for a moment, the kindly Abbot looked a little staggered. Yet this was a planned invasion, as the day marked the four hundredth anniversary of the Camaldolese Order in Poland, an event that stretched back to the foundation of Bielany monastery in 1604, high in the forests beyond Cracow.

Fanfares blew, and the interior of the great Mannerist church reverberated as violins and trumpets plunged into classics of Polish baroque music. A panoply of high-ranking bishops were in attendance, as well as the Archconfraternity of the Passion, a brotherhood of venerable laymen who were decked out in velvet capes, star-shaped medallions gleaming on their chests. Although Poland had been robbed of her monarchy two hundred years ago, the whole ceremony had a distinctly royal air about it.

Given the isolation of the monastery, which is known at 'Srebna Gora' (The Silver Mountain) it was not surprising that the Abbot betrayed a moment of butterflies. The thirteen monks at Bielany live in separate hermitages, and maintain minimal contact with each other throughout the year. Visitors are not abundant and only on special feast days are women actually allowed into the monastery.

However, in spite of the sea of visitors that Sunday, the Abbot held his nerve and delivered a calm and lucid speech that was a model of serenity. After the Mass, the Mayor of Krakow gave a golden chalice to the Abbot, whilst a beaming General donated a sabre, alluding in witty fashion to a passage in the great nineteenth century trilogy of Sienkiewicz, in which the heros (a band of swashbuckling noblemen), endeavour to bring their friend out of his temporary seclusion in a monastery.

This month you can gain a glimpse into the remote world of the Camaldolese monks, as the Barbican (a splendid edifice just north of Cracow's Old Town Gate) is hosting an exhibition of photographs about the Order. Several gifted photographers have pictures in the show, including Adam Bujak, who is one of the country's most distinguished photographers. Proceeds from the ticket sales will help fund restoration of this magnificent (though in parts crumbling) monastery - its a marvellous cause and tickets are only 5 zl. These striking images provide a rare glimpse into a world that still exists in an entirely different age. Splendour, poverty and the supernatural are all combined.