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How did the hermitage come about?

It was at the time when Count Władysław Zamoyski was the landowner of Kuźnice and a wide area of the Tatra Mountains. It was he who Brother Albert referred to with a recommendation letter from Cardinal Dunajewski in the hope he would support his initiative to build a hermitage.

The Count spoke to him warmly:

“Brother, take as much as you want and
wherever you want.”

Brother Albert replied quoting Saint Francis:

“I should appropriate neither house, nor place, nor anything [for myself].”

He only asked to lease him some land on the way to Giewont and sell timber for building a hermitage. So with the help of some Highlanders and Brothers (and under the supervision of Brother Albert), a construction of the hermitage began. Stanisław Witkiewicz, Brother Albert’s old friend from his early days, helped to produce a design concept.
In 1902, the Albertine Brothers built a second hermitage near Krokwia (located higher up in the mountains); the former one at Kalatówki was given to the Albertine Sisters.