Plans are afoot in Wadowice, Poland, to convert the childhood home of Pope John Paul II into a new museum.

The existing museum shut on 9 September and work began on the 11th. The director of the facility, Fr. Paul Danek said that a contract had been signed with a contractor from Krakow, whose credits include renovation of the city's famous Cloth Hall.

The house will be made to look as it did in the 1920s, when the Pope, who died at the Vatican in 2005, lived there.

Neighbouring buildings will house exhibits that tell John Paull II's life story.

The museum is expected to reopen in late 2012.