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Jesuit Church and Monastery of the Sacred Heart of Jesus - Zabytek.pl

Jesuit Church and Monastery of the Sacred Heart of Jesus


church Kraków

Address
Kraków, Mikołaja Kopernika 26

Location
woj. małopolskie, pow. Kraków, gm. Kraków

The building exemplifies the Young Poland period architecture and is one of the most outstanding works of Polish sacred art of the first quarter of the 20th century.

The church architecture features elements derived from the Romanesque, Byzantine and Baroque art, but also Art Nouveau details and harbingers of Modernism can be identified.

History

The Jesuit Order has been associated with Kraków from the very beginning of its arrival in Poland. The complex in ul. Kopernika is one of the three properties related to Jesuits in the city. The others are at ul. Grodzka 52-54 and at Mały Rynek 8-9. The dissolution of the order in 1773 interrupted the centuries-long Jesuits’ presence in the city. Therefore, after the order was restored in 1814 and Jesuits returned to Kraków in 1867, of utmost importance was to find a suitable temple. Yet, all the former Jesuit locations had already been occupied by other tenants. Until the problem was resolved, the Jesuits had resided in a rented house at the Corpus Christi Church in the Kraków district of Kazimierz. The search for a new site to erect a temple was completed in 1868 with the purchase of a plot of land in ul. Kopernika in the district of Wesoła. Initially, a small Chapel of the Heart of Jesus was built. Then, a monastery and novitiate buildings were erected nearby. The mastermind behind the construction of a new church in Wesoła was the Galician provincial of the Jesuit Order, Włodzimierz Ledóchowski. The idea of building a temple devoted to the Heart of Jesus in Kraków and intended as a place of worship for Poles under foreign occupation and in exile emerged in 1904. Fund-raising began, and the donors were numerous. The Jesuit church in Wesoła can be regarded as a collective foundation of Roman Catholics from all over Poland and the USA. 1909 saw the beginning of the construction of a new, monumental Church of the Heart of Jesus. The author of the design, selected after a failed and unresolved competition, was the Kraków-based designer Franciszek Mączyński, who prepared as many as three optional designs. The work was done by 1921. In 1960 Pope John XXIII awarded the Church of the Sacred Heart of Jesus the status of minor basilica.

Description

The Church of the Sacred Heart of Jesus dwarfs other building of the Jesuit complex. The brick temple was erected in the years 1909-1921 according to the design by Franciszek Mączyński. This unusual and valuable piece of architecture has definitely made its way into the cityscape with its 60-metre tower and soaring body. The designer strove to seek a new, national form while using the language of modernised historicism. The church architecture features elements derived from the Romanesque, Byzantine and Baroque art, but also Art Nouveau details can be identified. The whole offers an original architectural quality, in line with the modernist fashion of the time. The most distinguished Kraków artists were commissioned to wok on the interior decoration: the sculptures on the façade were made by Xawery Dunikowski; the altars and sculptural details inside by Karol Hukan; the wall paintings, stained-glass cases, and confessionals by Jan Bukowski; mosaics by Piotr Stachiewicz and Leonard Stroynowski, sculptures in the rood beam screen by Jan Raszka. The stained-glass windows, damaged in 1945, were replaced with new ones designed by Jan Skąpski. The church is flanked by earlier buildings. The brick monastery (today a dental clinic) was built ca. 1878 according to the design by Antoni Łuszczkiewicz. The same architect designed the east part of the college body (1878-1879). The central part from the years 1889-1890 was designed by Ignacy Miarczyński. The east wing (1892) was designed by Stanisław Krzyżanowski; in the years 1903-1904, he supervised the extension project. Extension of the east wing done in 1912-1913 is a design by Franciszek Mączyński. Today, the complex, enlarged by a few other buildings, seats the Jesuit University Ignacianum. The entire complex is immersed in a garden set up at the turn of the 19th century.

The site is open to visitors.

Author of the note Roman Marcinek, Regional Branch of the National Institute of Cultural Heritage in Kraków 30/09/2014

Bibliography

  • Dyba O., Zabytki architektury i budownictwa w Polsce. Krakow
  • Stoch E., Bazylika Najświętszego Serca Pana Jezusa w Krakowie, Kraków 1987.
  • Kontkowski L., Jezuicki kościół Serca Jezusa w Krakowie, in: Nasza Przeszłość, vol. 64, 1985.
  • Żukow-Karczewski M., Nie istniejące budowle Krakowa. Kaplica Serca Jezusowego, “Echo Krakowa”, 8 III 1994, no. 47 (14119).

Category: church

Architecture: nieznana

Building material:  brick

Protection: Register of monuments

Inspire id: PL.1.9.ZIPOZ.NID_N_12_BK.218229