The town rights were
expanded and the town remapped by Jan Zebrzydowski in 1640, gaining the name
Nowy Zebrzydów (New Zebrzydów). In 1715, the town suffered the effects of a
large fire and was subsequently rebuilt by Józef Czartoryski, its owner. The
Czartoryski family Palace was built in 1729-1731. In the 1980s, it was rebuilt
and remastered into the current seminary. The Habsburg Austrian Empire annexed
the town as part of its invasion of Poland during the First Partition of Poland
in 1772. The Austrian administration changed the name to "Kalwaria".
In 1887, Jan Kanty Brandys became the owner of the town and at around 1890 the
name Kalwaria Zebrzydowska was adopted. In 1896, the town lost its town rights
due to a decision by the governing Austrian authorities. The construction of
St. Joseph's Church began in 1905. The town returned to Poland in 1919 with the
end of World War I and the signing of the Treaty of Versailles by Roman Dmowski
on behalf of the Polish Republic on 28 June 1919 in Paris. The town rights were
restored in 1934 by a decision of the Polish government.
After World War II, the town's economic development largely relied on the
expansion of its furniture manufacturing and woodcraft industry, shoemaking, as
well as a growing number of pilgrims to its religious complex.
Pope John Paul II made several visits to Kalwaria Zebrzydowska on the
pilgrimages he made to his homeland Poland.
"According to his Apostolic Letter Rosarium Virginis Mariae he borrowed
the motto from the Marian consecrating prayer found in the book True Devotion
to Mary by Saint Louis de Montfort.
In 1987, Henryk Górecki composed a choral
piece (Totus Tuus Op. 60) to celebrate Pope John Paul II's third pilgrimage to
his native Poland that summer. While the motet opens with the same words as the
apostolic motto, the piece actually uses a poem by Maria Boguslawska for its
text
