Pope John Paul II’s life is being celebrated in a new €6.2m (US$8.5m, £5.1m) museum in the Polish city of Wadowice.

The multimedia museum will open tomorrow (9 April) in the house where John Paul was born on 18 May, 1920. Museum director Reverend Dariusz Ras said exhibitions have been designed with the younger generation in mind and will feature videos, recordings of speeches and a reconstruction of the house.

The museum will also display personal items from the Pope’s life, such as a bible from which passages were read during his final days, family photos, and documents which relate to key moments from his papacy.

Somewhat unusually, it will also house the handgun which was used by Mehmet Ali Agca in an assassination attempt against the Pope in 1981 in Vatican City. The weapon has been lent to the museum for three years by Italy’s justice ministry.

As the Pope’s birthplace, Wadowice is already a pilgrimage site for his large following.

The museum has been opened in advance of Pope Francis canonising John Paul at the Vatican on 27 April.