The Avenue of the Most Holy Virgin Mary — Aleja NMP to locals — is the central boulevard of Częstochowa, running about two kilometres from the main train station to the foot of the Jasna Góra hill. It was designed in the nineteenth century as a processional approach to the monastery, wide enough for the pilgrim crowds that flood the city on major feast days. The avenue is lined with lime trees and flanked by the city's main cafes, restaurants, and shops.
On ordinary days it functions as a pleasant central promenade. On August 15th — the Feast of the Assumption — it is impassable with pilgrims, many of whom have walked for days from Warsaw or Kraków. Watching the arrival of these walking pilgrimages is one of the more striking things you can see in Poland, regardless of your religious views: the faces of the people who have walked 250 kilometres over nine days are memorable in a way that a museum visit rarely is.