PREMIUM --

Museum of Pope John Paul II in Wadowice, his home city, on March 30, 2005. The Museum of the Family Home of Pope John Paul II was opened in 1984, on the Pope's 64th birthday, at the initiative of Archbishop Franciszek Macharski and Mitred Prelate Edward Zacher. The Museum traces the Pope's childhood and his journey from Wadowice to the Holy See in Rome. It was in this house that the Pope was born on 18 May 1920, and later also took his first steps. The room where he was born and the adjacent kitchen are furnished with items surviving from the Wojtyla family's original belongings, and also with those Karol Wojtyla used as a priest and bishop. Photo by Wojtek Laski/Laski Diffusion/ABACA.