Sanctuary of relics of the Holy Cross on Swiety Krzyz as an example of religious tourism Sanctuary of Relics of the Holy Cross on Swiety Rrzyz is one of the oldest pilgrimage centers in Poland. It had been most important too, before the miraculous defence of Jasna Gora in 1655. Historians claim that the Benedictine monastery on the mountain of tysiec was founded by Boleslaw Krzywousty in the thirties of the twelfth century, however exact date of the foundation is unknown. The monastery became famous as early as the Middle Ages, mainly by dint of relics of the Holy Cross. It is thought that relics were donated to monks in 1306 by Wladyslaw Lokietek. Currently, some 160 thousand tourists and pilgrims visit the sanctuary every year. This study describes forms and scale of tourist movement (including tourist movement's distribution during a year) and provides analysis of spatial range of the shrine's influence. Exact analysis of the dynamics of the pilgrimage and tourist movement is possible since 14th September 1998, the day when the monks started to register pilgrims in the pilgrimage Books. Most of the registered visitors came in 2000 (2755 groups totalled 120 668 people). 70 671 people came in tourist groups, the rest came in pilgrim groups (41,4% of the total number of visitors). Spatial range of the shrine's influence covers whole territory of Poland. In the year 2000, pilgrim and tourist groups came mainly from mazowieckie, świętokrzyskie and lubelskie provinces. Groups from lubuskie, warmirisko—mazurskie and zachodnio-pomorskie provinces were very rare. Most of the total number of tourist groups is registered in May and June. When it comes to pilgrim groups, they usually come in September, when shrine's main ceremonies take place.