Częstochowa, Poland

Częstochowa sits on the Warta River in southern Poland and is home to roughly 218,000 residents. The Jasna Góra Monastery, founded in 1382, shelters the icon of Our Lady of Częstochowa and draws about four million pilgrims each year, making it Poland's most-visited pilgrimage destination. A 50-metre bell tower built in 1644 marks the entrance to the complex, which held out against a forty-day Swedish siege during the Deluge of 1655. Beyond the monastery walls runs Aleja NMP, the longest shopping street in the country. Few visitors realize the icon itself carries scars from an attack that still has no confirmed explanation.