SENIOR'S PALACE  'THE OLD CONVENT' is a facility located about 2 km from Rabka-Zdrój, in the most beautiful part of Poland surrounded by mountains. It is situated not far from the main Kraków-Zakopane thoroughfare 'Zakopianka', which enables easy access to the facility for the prospective residents as well as their families.

The Home itself meets the highest European and American standards and is fully adapted for people with disabilities (ramps for wheelchairs and a lift in the building).

There are single, double and triple rooms located on free floors (ground floor, first floor and second floor). Each room is equipped with a nurse call system and has a bathroom fitted with grab rails for the disabled.

Functional and cosy rooms have been aesthetically furnished  and have specialist beds, TV and Internet access. Our facility also provides guest rooms for the residents' families.

Our mission is to ensure the highest standards of senior care by providing comfortable living conditions, employing qualified staff and creating warm family atmosphere.  Through our actions we want to prove that the residents' stay at our Home is a wonderful stage in their life filled with feeling of happiness and joy. We feel obliged to achieve these goals by the history of 'the Old Convent' which was often visited by the saint John Paul II.

 

Everyone who visits our facility and sees the way we run it as well as our beautiful garden and the surrounding mountains, will realise that we have created an exceptional place.

We have a license to run a 24-hour care centre for the disabled, chronically ill and the elderly. Registration number 46 in the Registry of the Governor of Małopolska Region.

1925-due to poor health of many sisters living in Cracow and other cities, Ursulines decide to buy a palace in Rokiciny Podhalańskie near Rabka to use as a place for climate treatment and holiday rest. The first sisters arrived in July that year. The Convent was accessible for all Ursuline congregations as well as their students and lay guests. The Convent chapel was used for church services for the local village and the sisters provided nursing care and charity help, taught religious education at the local school and organized practical courses. 

1933 – the palace was extended by adding two floors and academic conventions as well as general chapters took place there. During the war, despite hard conditions, the sisters hosted displaced families and gave help to everyone who asked for it.  From January 1941 to July 1942 they received children from Warsaw at threat from tuberculosis. Nazis ordered the prevention centre to be closed.

1943 – in January, Gestapo arrested the Mother Superior, M. Klemensa Staszewska, on charges of helping fugitives wanted by the Nazis. She died in reputation of sanctity in Auschwitz concentration camp in July 1943. She was beatified in June 1999 by John Paul II along with 108 Martyrs of World War II.

1943 – in July, Nazis removed the nuns and took over their house. The sisters managed to return there in December 1944. In summer 1945, they organized  a holiday camp for children  from Welfare Centre in Cracow and from September 1946 they ran Children's Home and a nursery for orphaned infants, since 1952 called Przystań. In 1945 they received a license from the educational authorities to run five-month Private Courses of Household and Poultry Keeping for Women. The sisters also taught religious education at the local school until 1954 when the subject was removed from schools. In the same year the communist authorities ordered the nursery to be closed down. Earlier, in 1952, the Children's Home was nationalised. The sisters continued teaching religion at parishes in neighbouring villages.

In recent years the Convent was a holiday-retreat centre which received young people in groups as well as individually.

2013 – the Convent building was purchased by Jadwiga and Artur Bocianowski who decided to start a care centre here. The building was thoroughly renovated in order to obtain the highest level of caring services. It also accommodates the seat of  Małopolska Care Foundation which was founded by Artur Bocianowski, who is also its President.