The design is attributed to the Italian architect Jan Solari.

History

The chapel in Jrzemanowice along with a hospital for the poor was founded by a Cracow burgher and merchant Jan Sroczyński from Jerzmanowice. It is a single-nave building with a semi-circular apse, vaulted, with pilaster partitions and the front façade with a triangular pediment framed by volutes, made of brick, on stone foundations in the years 1684-1696. The hospital chapel of St John the Baptist was consecrated in July 1688, and the official commissioning of the hospital with the church took place in December 1696, after the death of the founder. The author of the architectural design is not known. On the basis of similarities of style, art historians associate it with Jan Solari - the architect who designed, among other things, the church of the Nuns of Visitation in Cracow. In local tradition, the chapel was associated for centuries with John III Sobieski and his Vienna expedition of 1683. According to the tradition, the king was to stay in Pieskowa Skala, and his soldiers in surrounding royal villages, inter alia in Jerzmanowice, and the said events were associated with the creation of the chapel. In the years 1740-1747, an entrance porch was added from the west. The roof of the chapel, covered with wood shingles, was replaced a couple of times until 1830. From the mid-19th century, the unused chapel fell into decline, and during the World War II, it was used as a tools storehouse. In the postwar years, the ambo and choir along with pipe organ were removed from the chapel. After the building was entered to the register of monuments, construction and conservation works were carried out in 1956-1957, and further works in 2000. The wooden southern altar was renovated in 2003-2005.

Description

The chapel of St John the Baptist in Jerzmanowice is also called "chapel on the high road", as it was located by a former route from Cracow to Olkusz, present road no. 94. It was built of stone and brick and has been preserved until today in essentially unchanged original state. It is an oriented church, made of brick and resting on a stone foundation, erected on a rectangular floor plan, featuring one nave and a semi-circular abse, with a small sacristy from the north, and a porch added from the west. The body is covered by a barrel vault with lunettes, and the apse - by a hemispherical vault. The chapel is topped with a one-ridge roof clad with wood shingles. From the outside, the church's body features sophistically formed, two-storey front façade and simple side façades whose modest articulation creates partitions corresponding to the partitions inside. The front façade is also articulated in a sophisticated manner. It features 4 pilasters and 2 storeys. It is partitioned by a pronounced, strongly profiled cornice stepped on the pilasters. In the central part, just above the cornice, there is a semi-circular window in metal frames, with rectangular partitions, once accessible from the level of the choir. In the lower section, on both sides of the porch, there are oval niches with spherical vaults. A valuable element of the fittings is the Mannerist altar in the form o of a triptych framed by an architectural structure and restored in the early 21st century.

The church can be viewed from outside.

compiled by Tomasz Woźniak, Regional Branch of the National Heritage Board of Poland in Krakow, 02-08-2014.

Bibliography

• Faleniowska-Gradowska A., Noga Z., Jan Sroczyński (1614-1696) mieszczanin krakowski i dzieje jego fundacji, „Rocznik Krakowski” t. LXVII, 2001
• Katalog Zabytków Sztuki w Polsce, T. I, Województwo krakowskie , z. 12, Powiat olkuski, Warszawa 1951
• Kornecki M., Sztuka Sakralna, Kraków 1993
• Krasnowolski B., Leksykon zabytków architektury Małopolski, Warszawa, 2013
• Samek J., Kaplica św. Jana Chrzciciela w Jerzmanowicach, „Biuletyn historii sztuki” Warszawa 1959, nr 1
• Włodarczyk A., Opis inwentaryzacyjny obiektu, mps